


I Want You To Want Me

by cairistiona13



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop, SM the Ballad
Genre: Alpha Kyungsoo, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bottom Chanyeol, Boys Will Be Boys, Coming Out, Coming of Age, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gratuitous Smut, Homophobic Language, Implied Mpreg, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Knotting, Knotting Dildos, M/M, Magical Tattoos, Masturbation, Mates, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Misogyny, Multi, Omega Chanyeol, Omega Verse, Rape/Non-con Elements, Romantic Soulmates, Self-Acceptance, Self-Denial, Self-Discovery, Self-Hatred, Self-Lubrication, Sex Toys, Sexual Content, Sexual Identity, Shameless Smut, Social Commentary, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Top Kyungsoo, alpha!kyungsoo, bottom!chanyeol, omega!chanyeol, top!Kyungsoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 00:29:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 42,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5846902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cairistiona13/pseuds/cairistiona13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chanyeol has always thought he's going to be an alpha. His results say otherwise.</p><p>Translated into Spanish <a href="https://www.wattpad.com/story/115198996-i-want-you-to-want-me-deseo-que-me-desees-trad-a">here</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Want You To Want Me

**Author's Note:**

> This was very factually and scientifically correct until the cutie mark tattoos happened, and then after that it was basically just magic realism—and ridiculous at that. I had fun inventing my own rules for A/B/Os! ;) The silliest rule is how everyone’s heats start Friday or Saturday. Very convenient.  
> Also apparently people’s brains mature at different times in this world, because it isn’t illegal or even particularly creepy to sleep with a teenager post-self-discovery. Or at least not if you’re only a few years older. I’m pretty sure even this world would be against forty year olds sleeping with sixteen year olds.  
> Featuring lots of girls and boys and just generally people I like, and for that matter I’m so, _so_ sorry for what I’ve done to some of them. ;_; Especially Lee Hyunwoo, _baby_. ;_;  
>  Kyungsoo doesn't appear for...about 30,000 words? I'm not joking.  
> Title from the Letters to Cleo song from 10 Things I Hate About You.
> 
>  
> 
> Many great thanks to cat bear and chirpy dragon, and also thanks to everyone else who listened to me whine since I started this, like poor Paul, and best unnie Bee, my Jinho-sister-in-arms V, and lovely Bunny for the wristbands idea.
> 
> Dedicated to my love S, who’s been having a hard time lately.
> 
> Wristbands, for reference:  
> Alphas: leaf green (single), pillar-box red (claimed)  
> Betas: violet (single), butter yellow (claimed)  
> Omegas: cobalt blue (single), white (claimed)

There’s a moment in every child’s life that they are excited for, and that’s puberty.

Although it can be unpleasant and undignified until they mature, it also provides one relief; at some point during puberty, all children discover who they are and what their identity is: are they an alpha, a beta, or an omega?

It’s called an _aspect_ , and knowing what aspect you have can change your life and your future. Betas are the only ones who can go into Government, for example; alphas are seen as too controlling, and omegas too flighty, although not everyone falls into the tightly-set mould of stereotypes.

One day, a crescent moon will appear on an adolescent’s hip. That symbolises that they are ready, that they have an aspect, that they have become an _adult_. They go to the hospital to take a blood test. It takes five minutes for the blood test to give the results the new adult has been hoping for. Five minutes until they find out who they are.

Park Chanyeol is no different from every other teenager in the world, but he’s been waiting an unusually long time for the crescent moon to say he’s ready. He’s sixteen. The average teenager finds out at fourteen.

Chanyeol hasn’t got delayed puberty by any means; he’s probably in stage three, his parents reassure him weekly. His voice has dropped, he’s had a growth spurt, and he’s even got facial hairs—he’s started shaving. But his hips are blank. They stay blank even though most of his classmates wake up daily knowing who they really are.

Chanyeol’s father and older sister are both alphas, and his mother is a beta. Even though Chanyeol knows that aspects aren’t hereditary, he thinks he’s got pretty good genes and characteristics. He’s tall and solidly built, with long legs and hard muscles. He’s clever, even though some people would beg to differ. He’s a leader, amongst their friendship group. He watches over everyone, and he’s protective of them all. He’s unafraid of anything.

He thinks he’s probably an alpha. He feels like an alpha and he looks like an alpha, and people have been treating him like an automatic alpha since he was younger.

He also _wants_ to be an alpha. He supposes it wouldn’t be too bad to be a beta; half the population are betas. But they have no characteristics uniquely beta, unless you count level heads, and nobody knows when a beta is coming. Their scent is naturally indistinguishable. But people can smell alphas when they come. They turn their heads towards an alpha. Alphas are managing directors and powerful members of society. Chanyeol wants to be a powerful member of society.

The third category are omegas, and to be honest, Chanyeol thinks they’re a bit _lame_. Their only purpose in life is for alphas to use them for their own sexual enjoyment and baby-making abilities, and even then, Chanyeol doesn’t see why alphas just don’t date betas more often. Alphas can’t get pregnant, but alpha males can impregnate beta women as well as omegas. Betas are less annoying.

Even so, Chanyeol winks at cute omegas sometimes, pretty girls with knee-length skirts and thick cobalt blue wristbands that signify they’re single and looking for an alpha.

He never even looks at omega boys. He’s not entirely sure they even exist.

He’d never do anything with any omega girls, though. To him, they’re just playthings. They’re to be fucked during their heats when they’re needy and irresistible, and then left behind once it’s over, once they stop being interesting, once they stop being as fertile. Not that Chanyeol has ever fucked an omega—or, indeed, anyone at all. It’s illegal for someone without an aspect to have sex, as the law says that they are still a child.

Chanyeol is very public about his disdain for omegas. He is not shy about his language; he tells omega jokes (rude ones), and is constantly talking about how brainless and slutty they are. He doesn’t see the issue; it’s not like he’s the only one who thinks this way. The rest of his football team agree with him. They spend half their practices accusing one another of running so pathetically they must be an omega.

His friends don’t seem to mind either; beta Byun Baekhyun, and Kim Jongdae, who also doesn’t yet have an aspect. Jongdae and Chanyeol have been best friends since they were tiny, and Chanyeol thinks of him as his brother. He would do anything for Jongdae. Baekhyun is different.

Both Baekhyun and Jongdae are tiny. Chanyeol thinks they need a strong alpha like him to protect them as an alpha does. It’s his job to make sure they have no problems in school. Neither of them are very interested in sports, although Baekhyun does Martial Arts, which clashes with his image, and he feels the need to make sure that this association doesn’t hurt either of them—or himself. He likes them, and he doesn’t want his own image to be lessened due to theirs. So protection is probably in order.

Usually they don’t mind when Chanyeol says a joke, and even contribute—Baekhyun’s favourite joke is, “How many omegas does it take to change a lightbulb? One, but she needs an alpha to fuck her hard enough to make the lightbulb turn.” Even Jongdae enjoys the milder jokes, the ones that don’t hurt so much as merely make light of the trials of omegas; what they go through every month.

But one day Chanyeol’s commenting that a particular omega girl in their class—a larger girl with long hair—could probably fill a kid’s paddling pool every time she has her heat, and Jongdae freezes, before standing and practically storming out of the classroom.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun look at each other, both expressions surprised.

“What’s got his knickers in a twist?” Baekhyun asks.

Chanyeol shrugs. “I’ll go and find out,” he says.

The hall is packed with people, and it isn’t easy to find Jongdae in amongst the crowd, but being tall has its advantages. Chanyeol is able to spot his friend going into the gents at the other end of the hall, and he sprints down there, pushing people aside so he can reach Jongdae.

The door to the toilets is locked. Chanyeol knocks once. “Jongdae!” he hisses through the door, hoping that nobody around will be interested enough in him to wondering what he’s doing, whispering through the toilet door.

A second later the door opens and Jongdae lets Chanyeol come in, before locking the door. Then he spins to face Chanyeol and smacks him straight across the face.

Chanyeol is used to avoiding hits from footballs and from older guys who think he’s looked at their girlfriend for too long, but he isn’t expecting _Jongdae_ to hit him. It connects solidly with his jaw, sending him reeling back.

Chanyeol’s default position, when attacked, is to attack back, but Jongdae is already curling back in on himself, making himself as small as he possibly can, the way he did when they were scrawny first years prone to saying the wrong thing and getting picked on by older bullies. Chanyeol has to turn away to breathe through his nose, calming himself down.

“What was that for?” Chanyeol finally manages.

“The omega jokes,” Jongdae says. “I can’t take it anymore.”

Chanyeol frowns and points out, “You’ve never had an issue before.”

“No,” Jongdae agrees, and then, after standing back up, pulls the side of his trousers down to reveal the crescent moon on his hip. “I’ve got my aspect. It’s not funny anymore.”

“Why not?” Chanyeol asks, frowning, as he stares at Jongdae’s identity, laid out for him.

“Because,” Jongdae says with a sigh, as if Chanyeol’s slowness is tiring him, “ _I’m_ an omega.”

Chanyeol stares at him for a few seconds. “C’mon, Dae,” he says. “That’s not funny either. We both know you’re not a sex-crazed lunatic.”

Jongdae lunges for him and gets a well-aimed knee straight into Chanyeol’s balls, causing Chanyeol to sink to the ground, cupping himself. “Funnily enough,” Jongdae says, standing over Chanyeol with his hands on his hips, “not all omegas are, in fact, ‘sex-crazed lunatics’, and they’re not all stupid, and _we’re_ not all sluts.”

Chanyeol makes a mental note in that minute to do his best to not say any more jokes in Jongdae’s presence. (It doesn’t always work.)

\---

If there’s one thing high school takes pride in, it’s knowing everything about everyone, and the most important thing is, of course, everyone’s aspect.

It takes approximately one day for everyone to know that Jongdae is an omega, which is a curiously long time for their school.

The problem is that Jongdae has never expressed an interest in sex or who he’d like to have it with, and that makes him _weird_. Chanyeol and Baekhyun are both aware that Jongdae refers to himself as asexual, and although neither of them entirely understands what that means, they respect it in the way that they don’t constantly throw attractive people his way, with the intention of helping him “see the light”, or whatever. If he shows interest, he’ll do it in his own time, now he’s legal.

But an omega without an interest in sex is baffling for the population of their high school, who, like Chanyeol, think all omegas are wired to want and enjoy sex. So Jongdae goes full circle and becomes the punching-bag he’d been in their first year; both verbally and physically.

Chanyeol, doing his duty as the tall and doting alpha friend, does his best to protect Jongdae, to hide him from bullies and to tell his own teammates that they should focus their anger and their disgust elsewhere.

In response, they give him an ultimatum.

“Either you stick with that unnatural _thing_ , or you stay on the team,” the Captain, a solidly-built alpha senior a head taller than even Chanyeol, tells him. “If you don’t choose us, you’re no better than _it_ is. You are the youngest member of our team and you’re replaceable—there are hundreds of guys who would _kill_ for your place on the team, or worse.” He runs his eyes down Chanyeol’s form in a terrifying way that causes shivers to run down his spine. “You know better.”

Chanyeol can hear the threat running underneath his words; if he chooses Jongdae over the team, it won’t just be a beating that he’ll get. They might just wait until he has his aspect, but they will pay him back for betraying them.

Chanyeol loves Jongdae, loves him like the brother he never had, but he doesn’t want the rest of his high school life to pass within the confines of a wheelchair, or worse.

“I understand,” Chanyeol says quietly, feeling like he’s just marked Jongdae for death.

\---

Chanyeol avoids Jongdae as best he can. He doesn’t outright ignore him—difficult to when their parents are friends—and he, of course, never takes part in the active bullying himself. He just keeps his distance. He can’t bear to see what is happening to Jongdae now he can’t stop it.

Chanyeol isn’t very good with his emotions. He’s always seen of them as something unnecessary for him; he’s a big strong alpha, not a pathetic _omega_. Feelings are for _pussies_.

Yet sometimes Chanyeol throws up after practice, once all the exhaustion and the horror catches up to him, and he hears something about “sorting that little freak out”. He has nightmares about Jongdae getting killed from someone punching him in the jaw or ribs too hard.

Chanyeol is distantly aware that being worried for Jongdae has, in fact, outweighed his enjoyment of football, but he’s still too scared of the consequences to leave.

He starts to pass notes to Jongdae through Baekhyun, using him as a middleman. His teammates aren’t even aware that Baekhyun exists, and therefore there are no rules against Chanyeol talking to him.

It takes a while for Baekhyun to play along—he, not undeservedly, doesn’t think a lot of Chanyeol for abandoning Jongdae in his time of need. But eventually even Baekhyun comes to realise the pressure and stress that Chanyeol is under.

Jongdae is even more forgiving. He can punch Chanyeol well in person, but his short notes are remarkably understanding for someone who gets beaten up on a regularly basis.

“It’s alright,” Jongdae reminds him via note. “Remember that half the team is leaving in two weeks.”

This reminder gets him through to the end of the year.

The new team Captain, Bang Cheolyong, is instated in the final week before Chanyeol’s sixteenth year ends. He is a young alpha who Chanyeol knows has a crush on an omega girl, and who never takes part in the bullying of omegas. Saying an omega joke around him is asking for a punch in the teeth. He’s been made Captain because of his excellent football skills rather than his way of viewing the world, but Chanyeol relaxes, because under his command, he knows that he’ll be able to be friends with Jongdae again—and, indeed, he slips back into Jongdae’s life as easily as he is able.

Unfortunately, he’s missed so much of Jongdae’s life since they stopped talking.

He’s missed out on Zitao.

Huang Zitao is a Chinese beta younger than both of them, and he’d come to Korea when his family had moved. His parents, also betas, both work for the Government, and they’d been sent to improve Korean-Chinese relations. He and Jongdae had apparently hit it off instantly—in more ways than one. Jongdae is completely besotted with him. It’s something that Chanyeol has never thought would happen.

And then Jongdae shows him that his crescent moon symbol has changed—a dark mole turning the outlined crescent moon into a full moon. Chanyeol is shocked and bewildered.

“He was helping me with my heat,” Jongdae says quietly, trying to fight down a blush. Chanyeol understands; it’s not like they’ve ever talked about sex with each other. It’s somewhat awkward knowing that Jongdae gets fucked, even though he says he doesn’t really have much interest in it; it’s just a means to an end. “It’s horrible and painful, and he can’t knot me so it doesn’t go away quickly. But yeah, this just _happened_. He’s my mate, Chanyeol. He’s mine. I didn’t even know it was possible.”

Betas and omegas are not supposed to be mated together. A mating pair is supposed to improve the genes of offspring, and only alphas can impregnate omegas. Zitao and Jongdae can never have biological children together, so it makes no sense that they would be mates. But they are—the symbol never lies.

Chanyeol thinks it’s amazing, and then wonders when he got so soft.

\---

The year passes by in a blur—he watches his friends and classmates go through girlfriends and boyfriends, gain mates and lose friends. He plays some rather fantastic football, scoring goals and making Cheolyong cheer and shake Chanyeol about as if he’s a ragdoll. He passes (and fails) some rather important exams. And yet, he’s still a child.

Chanyeol has his seventeenth birthday in late November, and there is still no sign of his aspect. Jongdae, Zitao and Baekhyun celebrate with him, all telling him it’ll be okay. He’ll find out soon.

 _Soon_ turns out to be three days after his birthday, on Friday, when he wakes up to find the moon on his left hip.

He positively _shrieks_ in his glee. When his mother comes running in to find him only in a ratty old pair of boxers, he doesn’t even care, just shoves the elastic waistband down to his upper thigh so she can see the crescent moon. It’s made out of moles and it’s pretty, and it means everything to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol’s mother calls into work and his school, explaining the situation and how she’s taking her son to the hospital to do the test.

He gets dressed and has breakfast whilst nervously knocking his knee against the table until Yura glares at him, her head resting on her raised arm, showing off her leaf green wristband—signifying that she’s a single alpha. Now he’s of age he can feel her alpha pheromones, and he feels the immediate urge to obey her unspoken question. His knee stills immediately.

“This is great,” Yura says aloud, with a grin on her face. Their father tells her off for taking advantage, and she cows under his stronger alpha pheromones.

But it doesn’t help calm him down. He’s been ready for this day for far too long. He just wants to hear the aspect doctor say, “You’re an alpha,” so he can get on with his life; find some omegas to fuck to see what it’s like, find a cute beta girl to date, move on. He’s sure that he’ll be able to find his mate early on in life, the way most people do, and she’s probably really pretty. They’ll have really cute kids together.

The car ride to the hospital, and then the following thirty minutes where he waits to be called in to see the doctor, is the longest hour of his life, especially with Yura making quips the whole time about how he’s probably not an alpha and has got himself all excited for nothing—or at least when she’s not letting herself be distracted by cute boys she can see outside the car.

When his name is called, he grins to his family and then heads into the aspect doctor’s room, a bounce in his step.

The system is simple; a blood test is taken, much like what one would get to find out their blood type. Chanyeol doesn’t flinch when the needle enters his arm.

The blood is then tested to find out what aspect the person has, using strange chemicals and science that Chanyeol doesn’t understand. It only takes five minutes, so the doctor, Dr Lee, makes small-talk with him until a bell rings, signifying that the test is done.

Dr Lee clicks open the results on the screen. From where Chanyeol is sitting, he can see a lot of strange words, lines and symbols that he can’t decipher, but it must mean something to the doctor, because he nods.

“Congratulations!” Dr Lee says, in a way that sounds somewhat rehearsed. “You’re an omega.”

Chanyeol almost doesn’t hear the words, and when they sink in he thinks his heart might have stopped. “Wait,” he says, once he can breathe again, “I think I’m hallucinating. What did you say?”

“You’re an omega,” the doctor repeats patiently, smiling at him.

Chanyeol is angry, so angry; with Dr Lee, with his traitorous body, with everyone who has built him up to think he’s an alpha; special and powerful and a leader. But instead of throwing something at the doctor or swiping everything off his desk the way he wants to, Chanyeol starts crying—loud, childish, hiccoughing sobs. He isn’t sure what he’s crying for; fear, misery, the loss of his identity, being something he’s hated and mocked for so long. He’s had so long to imagine being an alpha that he can’t imagine not being one. He can’t imagine being an _omega_.

“It’s alright,” Dr Lee says.

“Could you have made a mistake?” Chanyeol asks, between hiccoughs.

“Come here,” Dr Lee says, and after Chanyeol crosses to sit by him, the doctor turns the computer screen towards him. He points out the different sections of the results chart and explains what they mean. Chanyeol doesn’t understand most of it, but the doctor sounds very convincing—after all, he doesn’t know Chanyeol, and this is his subject of interest. He knows full well what he’s talking about. “You’re very definitely an omega,” he says after his explanation. “Your levels of the aspect are very high. I’d expect that your aspect developed so late because your body was trying to accommodate it. It went out of its way to make sure you can have the easiest time as an omega possible, and any of your offspring have an easy time as well.”

Chanyeol is able to read between the lines: his body took a really long time to develop his aspect because it was trying to make it so he can carry really healthy babies, and lots of them. He buries his head in his hands. He thinks he’s going to be sick.

“Omega life may be difficult for you,” Dr Lee says, “especially as you don’t fit the usual mould of what an omega is publicly seen to be like. I would recommend you talk to our omega specialist if you have any difficulties.”

“What will it be like?” Chanyeol asks softly. Even to his own ears, his voice sounds like it’s coming from down a tunnel.

Dr Lee’s explanation is very little Chanyeol doesn’t already know. He’ll have multiple-day heats every month; possibly four with how fertile he seems according to his aspect chart. The safest people to have sex with are other omegas, but betas are fairly safe too. If he has sex with an alpha, he could get pregnant in their first time, so it’s better to use contraceptives if he wants an alpha to knot him. (When Chanyeol asks how a male gives birth, the doctor gives the most unspecific and terrifying answer possible: “You’ll find out later.”) He’s told he can use suppressants to dull his scent and omega pheromones, and to make his heats less broadcasted, less _public_ , almost, and less painful and bothersome.

When asked what he means by _broadcasted_ , the doctor says, “An alpha can tell when an omega is about to go into heat, or is already in heat, whereas betas can’t. You can use suppressants to make sure that if you are out in public nobody can tell that you’re an omega, let alone an omega just about to start their heat, which will protect you from the unwanted advances of alphas. The suppressants won’t stop you from having heats, or block your pheromones if you are already _in_ heat, but they will make them more manageable for you.” He looks at his chart for a moment before turning back to Chanyeol. “You’ll have your first heat this weekend as the first heat after you’ve gained your aspect, but after that it will settle into routine. You may have another heat in December, and then every month after that. You will be able to predict when they are going to happen and prepare for them. Your heat will never be triggered early, so it will always come on schedule, even once you are mated. Having an alpha’s help will shorten your heat substantially, maybe even down to one day. The only time your heat will not come is when you are carrying children.”

Chanyeol bites his lip and manages to collect himself. “Can I get the suppressants now?” he asks, his voice small.

“I’d suggest you have your first heat before you decide,” Dr Lee says. “Taking them before you ever have a heat might mess up your cycle.”

Chanyeol nods. “Okay,” he says meekly, although it’s not okay. He doesn’t know if it will ever be okay again.

The doctor prints him off a copy of his aspect results and then hands him a card with the name of the omega specialist; basically a glorified counsellor who specialises in omegas who don’t feel like omegas. “You should definitely see her,” he says. “And if you still want suppressants after your heat, come in once it’s finished and we’ll write you a prescription.”

And like that, Chanyeol is waved out of the office, still trembling, upset, and, underneath it all, absolutely _fuming_. He clutches the results close to his chest and shuffles out.

“Oh!” his mother says, jumping out of her seat when she sees him. “So, what are you then?”

Yura takes one look at him, eyes raking over his shaking form and the drying tear tracks down his cheeks. “He’s not an alpha,” she says confidently. “I knew it.”

Chanyeol clenches his fist and does his best to not attack her, right then and there, in the hospital. It wouldn’t be appropriate.

“Oh, don’t be too disappointed about that,” their mother says, as they leave the area slowly and head back to the car. “There’s nothing shameful in not being an alpha. Your father and I will love you just the same, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol’s treacherous eyes water, and he sniffs, trying to stop his tears from overflowing as he focuses on his anger instead, at life being so cruel to him and taking away the one thing he really _identifies_ with in life. His mother means well, but all he can think about is how _betrayed_ he feels.

“Are you a beta, then?” Yura asks as they climb into the car. She lets Chanyeol have the front seat, which is pretty charitable of her. She would usually push him out of the way to get there first. She must be able to tell how upset he is—and actually _care_. That’s unusual for her.

He doesn’t reply, just buckles himself in and rests his head against the window.

“No!” Yura shouts, the one word full of mirth. She reaches over Chanyeol and snatches the results sheet straight out of his hands, knocking the card onto the floor. He leaves it there as the fury overflows. He clenches his hands tightly into fists.

“Oh my God!” Yura shrieks.

“Calm down, Yura,” their mother says calmly. She does most things calmly. Chanyeol wishes he could sense her pheromones, because he could really do with being soothed right now.

“Umma, he’s an _omega_ ,” Yura says.

Their mother does seem a bit surprised by this, but she doesn’t say so. In fact, she doesn’t say anything at all, just nods and continues to drive.

“This is so rich! The kid who hates omegas becomes one,” Yura scoffs.

“That’s enough, Yura,” their mother says, and she reaches over to pat Chanyeol on the knee, without looking away from the road.

Chanyeol tries to calm himself down, but it’s awfully difficult when all he can hear is his sister’s laughter, and ultimately he fails. He spins in his seat, reaches over, and grabs a handful of her hair, yanking on it before she can force her pheromones over him, causing him to relax and let go of her.

“Chanyeol!” his mother snaps, taking one hand off the wheel to tug him back into his seat. Chanyeol can see Yura rub her head and straighten out her hair in the wing-mirror.

“She started it,” he says, folding his arms.

“And I’ve finished it,” his mother says, calming her voice down. “I’ll hear no more about this until we get home. The first one of you to speak goes without dessert.”

Chanyeol swallows his words instantly.

\---

Their next task is to head to the Registrar’s office to update Chanyeol’s records and for him to receive a new ID card and two wristbands; one blue and one white, for when he gets claimed by his mate, or chooses his life partner. Chanyeol is surprised by this; he’d thought that everyone just has a mate coded into their system, and he’d presumed that everyone eventually finds their mate—though most find theirs early on in life. He hadn’t realised that sometimes people _don’t_ find their mate, and instead an unmated pair of lovers make a conscious decision to stay together for life. Both people choose not to search for their mates afterwards and stay bonded to their life partner.

Filling in the form, as he stands in the crowded room, makes it seem real. This is it—it can’t be changed, and he’s going to have to accept it; he’s an omega. Chanyeol dry-swallows as he slides the wristband on over his wrist, the blue bright against his black hoodie. He’d been expecting it to be green, or maybe the violet of single betas—not blue. He’d never expected this.

Chanyeol looks at his ID card as they walk back to the car. The /O/ is written right next to his blood type, which is A. He wishes with all his heart that it’s the other way round.

Once they get back to their home, Chanyeol storms up to his bedroom. He rips off the wristband and throws it into the corner of his room and then falls onto his bed, curls up into the covers, and falls into a fitful sleep. He is allowed to sleep all the way through until dinner, when he stumbles down to the kitchen.

Chanyeol’s still in a dreamlike state when his father asks him what his aspect is.

“He’s an omega,” Yura cuts in before Chanyeol has the opportunity to reply. “It’s hilarious.”

“There’s nothing bad about being an omega,” their father says. “It’s a very important role to have.” He smiles warmly at Chanyeol.

“I just don’t…” Chanyeol begins, and he shrugs. “I like girls?” he tries.

“But female alpha-male omega relationships can be very successful,” his mother says. “Just look at your cousin Amber.”

Amber Liu isn’t Chanyeol’s cousin, but she’s his mother’s best friend’s daughter, so she may as well be. She’s strong-willed and opinionated, and she loves to have a laugh and let her hair loose. She thinks that people shouldn’t take themselves too seriously.

Her mate is an older omega boy called Henry Lau, and their relationship is a curious but very loving one, and they’re already planning for a baby once they’re out of university. But Chanyeol’s not sure he wants a relationship like that. He isn’t sure what he wants, but he’s always imagined a beautiful, smiling beta by his side. It’s possible that, like Jongdae, his mate may be a beta, but it’s statistically unlikely.

“I would pay to see that,” Yura says. Before he found out he was an omega he would have kicked her, but that was before her pheromones worked on him. Now he finds himself stuck firm in his seat, unable to move, as she holds his feet in place. “I think you’d do great with an alpha to keep you in your place.”

“Yura,” their mother warns.

Chanyeol had only managed to eat half of his food before the interrogation into his aspect began, and now he’s not hungry. He asks to be excused, leaving the threat of injury to Yura merely implied, and his mother agrees, following him to his room once Yura drops her hold over him.

“Are you okay?” she asks gently.

Chanyeol shakes his head. “I never expected this,” he says.

“It’ll be alright, baby,” his mother says, reaching out to touch him. He flinches, and she lets her hand fall. “You’ll get used to it, Chanyeol,” she says gently.

“How am I going to get used to heats?” he asks. “To the societal pressure of being an omega?”

She shrugs. “I’m sorry I don’t know all the answers, but we’ll go through it together. Do you know when your first heat is?”

“The doctor says this weekend,” he replies, looking anywhere but straight at her. He can’t bear to see the love, the _pity_ , showing in her eyes. Not right now. “I don’t know when it’ll start.”

He can see her nod from the corner of his eye. “Okay. I’ll get the alphas out of the house for you, and give you some space. It’ll be alright. I’ll be here for you.”

Chanyeol thanks her and climbs into bed, dreading the start of his heat and not entirely sure he knows what to do in order to cope with it.

\---

It doesn’t start until after lunch, which he is sharing with his mother. His sister’s at a friend’s house, and he doesn’t know where his father’s gone.

The only way he can describe the way heats begin is like a really bad hot flush, when all he wants to do is rip his clothes off and lie in a cold bath. But this is worse, because he gets hard, and wet. So very wet, as his body self-lubricates in its eagerness to receive a knot. He shudders.

This is his body’s way of telling him that he’s an omega, that there’s nothing he can do about it.

Chanyeol excuses himself without mentioning why, but his mother can probably tell from the awkward way he walks, trying not to soak his trousers through with how wet he is.

He locks his bedroom door and throws a towel on the bed before making short work of his clothes and throwing himself on the towel.

He ignores the wetness and instead begins to work off his erection, thinking of all the pretty girls he’s liked for so long, all the pretty beta celebrities he has crushes on. This is how he comes the first, second, third times. After this, he’s able to have some reprieve as it calms down enough to let him sleep for a few hours, but he’s woken up by his dick, hard as a rock, around five in the evening. He goes through the whole process again.

This is how his weekend is spent; three days, including Monday—he can’t go to school because of it—half asleep and half hard. It is the least fun thing Chanyeol has ever experienced, but he refuses to think about a knot. He can’t bear to crack so soon, so he won’t.

Once it subsides, Monday night, Chanyeol goes back to the doctor, who signs him a prescription for suppressants, and Chanyeol heaves a huge sigh of relief, because that’s one problem down.

His next problem is working out what to say to his friends.

\---

They are quite curious friends.

“So,” Jongdae begins, looking all over him, Tuesday morning. “Why weren’t you here yesterday?”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes. “Well aren’t you nosey! For your information, I had a stomach bug,” he says. “It happens. Yura-noona made dinner.”

Yura had made dinner, so that bit isn’t a lie. It was bibimbap and it was delicious. They don’t need to know that.

Jongdae looks disappointed. Chanyeol wonders what he’d been hoping to hear.

“So, what are you, then?” Zitao asks. “We heard that you got your aspect on Friday.”

Chanyeol has thought about it, and although it’s strange to lie to his friends, he can’t bear to tell them that he’s an omega. He can’t deal with their expressions of mirth when they realise that he’s joined the ranks of the slutty omegas he used to mock daily. He can’t deal with their inevitable laughter and the shame he’d feel when they realise he’s a fertile omega whose body intends him to carry many, many babies. He’d feel humiliated. So he’s decided to lie.

He’s already decided that it’s too difficult to pretend to be an alpha. Although alphas can get suppressants like omegas, it’s still more difficult to pretend to be one, when you’re not. They have all kinds of facial tells, and a tendency to notice omegas in heat far too quickly for Chanyeol to fake. Plus, he won’t be able to knot anyone, and that will be a huge giveaway.

But pretending to be a beta shouldn’t be too hard. Most of the population are betas, and they’re all different. Betas have no pheromones, so Chanyeol’s lack won’t be deemed suspicious.

“Not an alpha,” he says, with a shrug. “I guess it was too much to hope for.”

“Beta then? What a shame,” Baekhyun says. “I know you wanted to be an alpha. But it’s okay, you’re in good company with us.” He wraps his arms around Chanyeol’s and Zitao’s shoulders.

Jongdae frowns. “I guess I’m still the only non-beta,” he says with a sigh. “That’s how it’s always been, I’ve always been the odd one out; why would this be any different?” he mutters the last part to himself.

Chanyeol feels a rush of guilt run through him, but it passes before he can get the courage to confess.

And that’s that: Park Chanyeol, to his school, is a beta.

A soon very in-demand beta.

Chanyeol is attractive and he’s always known that girls look at him when they think he’s not looking, but he never really noticed any of them, because most of them were omega girls. But now he’s of age, and has his aspect, he’s desirable.

Not long after he gains his aspect, an older girl, pretty with long brown hair, large eyes and dimples, comes up to him and asks him to help her through her heat.

Their school has a policy that basically looks down on alphas who go looking for omegas who are going to start their heat soon because it’s very close to sexual assault. This means a lot of the omegas proactively search for someone to invite into their bed when they know their heat is close.

Omegas are in no danger of mating with each other, and she’s not after a knot, so Chanyeol agrees.

Her name is Bae Woohee, he learns shortly before he’s balls-deep in her wet heat. Although he was a virgin, he’s a quick study, and he quickly learns what she likes—fingers insistent against her clit as he almost _jackhammers_ into her from behind. When they switch, so that she’s on top, her perfect breasts bounce as she rides him, sliding down him like a sheath.

Chanyeol discovers that he likes sex. He likes the feel as she pulses around him when she comes. He enjoys how she tugs his hair and how she kisses. He loves the wetness of a sloppy tongue against his cock. He likes having a pretty girl to help him get off after just his hand and his illegality for years after his friends were already having lots of fun and creative sex.

And Woo…hwa? Young? Jin? Ri? Hee?...And _Tits_ isn’t shy about telling people that he helped shorten her heat by a full two days, even though he couldn’t knot her.

A week later, he gets his second proposition, sixteen year old Kim Something-or-Other (Dahee? Dari? Dayoung? Dasom? _Smiley_ ); pale skinned and beautiful with long black hair and a wide smile, who is shy and clearly nervous about asking for his help. He later takes her hard and fast up against her bedroom wall, and she clings too tightly to his back, nails digging in, when her fourth toe-curling orgasm rips through her. Chanyeol loves it.

This becomes a regular occurrence, through the final few months of the school year and then into Chanyeol’s final year. All kinds of omega girls come to ask him for help, sometimes only once, but sometimes repeatedly. Sometimes, even beta girls get interested in seeing what all the fuss is about. They don’t get anywhere near as wet as omega girls, but sex is sex, and Chanyeol soon becomes somewhat excellent at working out what will get a girl off harder—excellent knowledge for when a girl is in heat. He quickly learns various positions, angles, which help get a girl off whilst still leaving him hard, so he can help with a second, third, fourth round without coming too quickly and spoiling their fun.

But every month, behind the scenes, there are still three or four days, usually over the weekends, regular as clockwork, when Chanyeol goes through the same thing as Tits, Smiley, Eyes (she has the most beautiful eyes), Legs (she has the thickest thighs Chanyeol has ever seen in a girl, because she’s a dancer, and Chanyeol finds that _hot_ ), and all the other girls he’s helped out. When his body cries out with the desperate need to be filled with something hot, thick and hard. When he shuts his eyes and tamps it down like an urge he’s forbidden himself to have. He doesn’t touch himself there. He doesn’t finger himself and spread his fingers, imagining that it’s a knot. Maybe it would be easier if he did. Maybe it would be easier if he succumbs to what nature has always intended for him. But he refuses. He tells himself that he won’t give in.

He distracts himself by getting a girlfriend (his first) during his final year of school, a pretty beta two years older. Her name is Song Joohee and she’s the epitome of a perfect beta; beautiful, with long brown hair and fair skin, and sexy, with a perfect S-line and bedroom eyes that are capable of turning him on whenever she wants. She’s also got a fantastic personality; a combination of friendly and kind, yet mischievous and strong, and she’s incredibly intelligent. She knows what she wants and she knows how to get it, which is why she’s studying Law at S University. Chanyeol thinks they make the most attractive couple he’s ever seen.

But it isn’t to last. Their relationship is born, flourishes, and dies within two months, when Joohee’s studying gets too important for her to risk going home to see him. Chanyeol wouldn’t admit it aloud, but he’s grateful, as he’s pretty sure that she was starting to suspect something. There had been a close call with his heat coming early in the day; earlier than he had expected. He’d never been more grateful that betas can’t sense pheromones.

His friends pat him on the back and say that it’s a shame that they aren’t mates, that they won’t stay together, because they’d have the most gorgeous children. Chanyeol laughs, but secretly he’s wondering if omega males are capable of impregnating beta women. Somehow, he thinks they probably can’t, but it’s worth researching anyway.

The answer, he finds out a Naver search later, is that no, they can’t. Such a shame.

\---

It’s been a tough week. He’s had essays, exams, and now the added stress of an omega who asked him to help her out during her heat—but unfortunately, her heat is the same weekend as his, so he had to make up an excuse as to why he can’t help her. She seemed to take this as a deliberate slight against her person and spent a good hour after school hurling abuse at him until he was able to get a classmate to consent to helping her out instead.

All Chanyeol wants to do is curl up in bed, but when he falls down onto his covers, there’s a solid and uncomfortable lump in the way.

He pulls it out from under his torso, and discovers it’s a wrapped box, with a heart on the top next to handwriting he recognises as that of his sister.

He has half a mind to toss it aside and open it after his nap, but something compels him to open it first. He tears off the wrapping paper and then almost drops the contents in horror as he scrambles off the bed and away from the offending object.

Yura’s bought him a sex toy.

It’s a type of vibrator specifically to emulate the sensation of a knot spreading, and if Chanyeol were vaguely interested in being knotted (he’s really not, because he’s _straight_ ) he might be happy, even excited at the opportunity to have a simulated knot rather than the real thing which he’s too _straight_ (read: pathetic) to get—it’s kind of hard to be knotted for real when you’re _straight_ , female alphas notwithstanding, because they basically have dicks anyway—but Chanyeol isn’t interested at all.

So he gathers the present up with the tips of his fingers and shoves it in a cupboard, before going back to bed and falling asleep and most _definitely_ not dreaming about being knotted.

\---

Chanyeol shouldn’t really be surprised when his coach calls him into his office partway through the year, but somehow he is anyway.

“Chanyeol,” his coach says, after he’s invited him to sit down, “you must have an idea about why I called you here.”

Chanyeol looks down at his hands. This feels remarkably uncomfortable. “No, Sir,” he says.

The coach sighs. “You’ve been missing a lot of practices.”

And Chanyeol gets it.

He’s not wrong. Chanyeol has missed a lot of practices, but most of them had been okayed with Cheolyong’s replacement Captain, Bang Minsoo; Chanyeol has a very good image of a lady-killer, and he takes advantage of it even when it’s his own heats.

“I understand that you have a very… _exciting_ private life,” his coach continues, speaking carefully. “But it has reached the point where if you don’t come to our next practice on Saturday, you have to understand you’re off the team.”

This Saturday is—of _course_ it is—the second day of Chanyeol’s heat, and there’s no way that he’ll be able to come in. There’s nothing he can take to stop his heat.

“I’m sorry,” Chanyeol says. He wants to fight, but how can he? He’s built up this image of himself; a lady-killer who skips practices to fuck girls. Maybe he would have got away with missing one practice every month, but it wouldn’t have taken very long to work out why he had it off.

No omegas are allowed on the football team. Chanyeol supposes this is why, more than just general prejudice against them.

“There’s no way I can come,” Chanyeol says.

The coach frowns, his expression tight, and then nods. “Thank you for playing, Chanyeol,” he says. “You’ve been a good team member. Maybe you will be able to play on your university team. Please return your kit as soon as you can.”

Chanyeol thanks him, and then leaves.

That evening he throws his sports kit into the washing machine for the last time and watches as it begins to spin, not entirely sure what he’s going to do with his life now.

\---

He makes it the best part of the year without anyone noticing that he’s anything other than what he says he is (somehow, considering all the days off he takes), until Kim Joonmyun comes to their school.

Kim Joonmyun is a (gorgeous) young actor—he’s tiny, with dark brown hair, a lovely smile, and a fantastic dress sense—known for his bright smiles and famed for how polite he is offstage. He also has a rather good singing voice, which comes out in multiple OSTs a year for different dramas and films. Chanyeol has to admit that he rather quite likes Joonmyun’s OSTs. He’s not a fan though. Really.

Joonmyun is also an alumnus of Chanyeol’s arts school, although he’d left for a separate acting college early on and therefore Chanyeol had never met him, and he’s back to film some kind of fantasy school drama—where nobody has aspects (Chanyeol finds this so weird)—, which means that the female population of the school get overly excited, and nobody wants to do any work. Therefore Chanyeol doesn’t want to do any work either.

Joonmyun gives a speech to the school students, during which Chanyeol spends more time thinking about how, although he’s twenty, Joonmyun still looks like a (somewhat cute) school student than actually listening to the words coming out of his mouth. All Chanyeol gathers is that there will be auditions for small parts in the drama for those acting-inclined.

“You should do it!” Jongdae suggests to Chanyeol later that day, when the buzz of Joonmyun’s arrival is still thick around them with whispers and squeals. “You should audition. You’d be a great actor.”

Chanyeol is very good at acting. After all, he does it every single day.

“Thank you,” Chanyeol says instead. “I’ll think about it.”

But when Smiley and Legs suggest to him that he should audition, he can’t shake the strange and curious desire to show the world what he’s capable of.

He tells his mother when he gets home. “It’s been a while since you stopped doing football,” she says. “You should do something new. I haven’t seen you this excited in a long time.”

Auditions are at the end of the week. Chanyeol signs his name onto the list of people who want to audition and then heads off to his classes, where it lurks in the back of his mind, clouding all his interactions and activities with excitement. He’s a good actor. He should get it, shouldn’t he?

He wasn’t expecting to be acting alongside Joonmyun, but he is; standing on the same stage and having a fake television conversation with him. It feels like he’s really talking to Joonmyun.

Chanyeol had never considered this could happen, but it is.

Joonmyun’s just as nice a person as his public persona, Chanyeol learns once his audition has ended and Joonmyun offers to stay with him until the next person auditioning arrives. He’s funny and kind, Chanyeol discovers as they chat about all sorts of things, until it’s clear that the last person auditioning isn’t going to show up, and although Joonmyun seems gentle there’s a backbone that runs straight through him, building him up stronger than he looks.

Even though he knows, from personal experience, that it doesn’t always work like that, Chanyeol can’t help but use Joonmyun’s personality to try to work out his aspect. Joonmyun doesn’t seem entirely like an alpha to Chanyeol—he thinks he’d be able to smell it, anyway—, but he can’t work out what he _is_. Chanyeol settles on beta, as Joonmyun has no discernible smell, and he can’t imagine it would be easy to be both an omega and a celebrity. Joonmyun has never publicly stated his aspect and nobody has ever read his identity card, so there’s no proof of what he actually is.

Then again, more celebrities are open about who they’re sleeping with than what their aspect is. Chanyeol can understand (and sympathise with) that. The public cares less if an idol is gay than if they’re an omega.

Chanyeol searches the internet to see what fans’ opinions of Joonmyun are, and is surprised at the number of people who think he’s an omega. There are also a large portion who think he’s a beta for the same reasons as Chanyeol. Very few think he’s an alpha taking suppressants. Chanyeol is aware that alphas can take suppressants but he knows it’s rare, and therefore unlikely.

Chanyeol has to put it out of his mind though, because on Monday he receives a call-back. He’s got the part, tiny as it is. And he can’t act whilst thinking of Joonmyun.

The filming doesn’t take too long, as he’s only needed in a couple of episodes; sometimes with speaking parts and sometimes just in the background. He mostly has to film in his breaks and after school, though sometimes he is allowed to miss lessons to film. Chanyeol gets a taste for acting in a different way from his usual default. Maybe he should become an actor.

His mother agrees with him, considering that his excitement has only been amped up since he got the part.

There are many young actors and school students in the drama, but Chanyeol and Joonmyun spend most of their breaks together. It isn’t because Joonmyun’s the most famous and Chanyeol’s sucking up to him; he genuinely enjoys Joonmyun’s company. He thinks that in a parallel world, where Joonmyun isn’t a celebrity, they may have been friends. In the few days they spend together, he thinks they are definitely forming the beginnings of a friendship, which is a pity because Joonmyun isn’t there for long. There are only sixteen episodes of the drama, and a good portion of each episode is filmed away from the school, so the school scenes will be done quickly.

Chanyeol thinks it will be a shame when Joonmyun’s gone. He likes getting the chance to do something new and unexpected.

Or at least he thinks that, until Joonmyun leans over and whispers to him, so quietly that nobody around them can hear, “So, I don’t think you’re a beta.”

Chanyeol jerks in his seat and pulls away to stare at Joonmyun with wide eyes. He’s never imagined someone accusing him of lying before, so he’s never perfected an expression where he _doesn’t_ look guilty at the accusation. “What do you mean?” he asks once he’s calmed down, as if his shock hasn’t betrayed him already.

“Everyone says you’re a beta,” Joonmyun says. “But I’ve been watching you. And I’m pretty sure you’re like me.”

“Like you?” Chanyeol repeats.

“Yes,” Joonmyun replies. “Like me.”

Chanyeol doesn’t get a chance to get him to clarify that, as Joonmyun is called back for another scene. Chanyeol just stares after him and wonders if that means Joonmyun is an omega on suppressants, or if he thinks Chanyeol is an _alpha_. No, he’d have lost that impression very quickly, if he’d had it in the first place. Chanyeol is no longer the cocky person who’d been convinced he was an alpha. He hasn’t told an omega joke since he became one.

Joonmyun escapes his bodyguards once they’re finished filming. “I’ll take you home,” he says to Chanyeol, who recognises it as an excuse to continue their conversation in private.

“What did you mean?” Chanyeol asks, once they get outside the school. Joonmyun has a large hat, scarf and mask on to disguise his identity. Chanyeol thinks he looks ridiculous and even more noticeable, but maybe teenage girls are more stupid than they look.

“I’ve heard a lot of things about your prowess in bed,” Joonmyun says, rather than answer Chanyeol’s question. “And I must say that I’m a little jealous, and more than a little intrigued.” He runs his eyes up and down Chanyeol, completely unabashed. “You’re not a bad looking guy.”

Chanyeol almost blushes at his praise. “Uh, thank you?” he says awkwardly. He may not be cocky anymore, but he’s always been confident. This feeling—of awkwardness, of feeling unworthy around Joonmyun—is new for him. The only other time he’d felt this way was with the football coach, when he’d left the team.

“I was thinking that you could help me with my heat, and then I’d help you with yours,” Joonmyun continues smoothly.

Chanyeol stops in the middle of the pavement. Joonmyun walks for a few further steps before seeming to realise. He turns back towards Chanyeol, who just stares at him, in his strange disguise, confused. “Um,” Chanyeol says. “I’m—I’m straight.”

Joonmyun shrugs. “I had gathered that impression from your long line of female conquests, but I was hoping you just hadn’t found the right guy yet. It’s alright. Offer’s open if you change your mind, or want to try something new, but my heat’s due Saturday, so I’d appreciate it if you tell me before then.” He looks down at his watch. “I should find my guards before they panic. See you tomorrow!”

He’s gone in the blink of an eye, leaving Chanyeol standing alone, wondering if he’d really just been sexually propositioned by the best looking young actor of their generation. That doesn’t happen every day.

Yura would be _so_ jealous if she knew.

\---

Despite his best efforts, Chanyeol can’t get it out of his mind over the next few days—the thought of being inside Joonmyun, of being able to kiss his smirk off his lips and being able to memorise the expression he makes when he comes. Chanyeol wonders what it would feel like to fuck a guy; whether their balls get in the way or whether he’ll feel their dick near him. He wonders whether it’ll bother him; being that close to another guy like that.

He doesn’t dream of fucking Joonmyun, but instead dreams of Joonmyun over him, pressed fully inside. He can’t recognise the sensations, but his body’s longing, when he’s on the cusp of wake and sleep, is almost palpable. The desperate need for someone to take him and knot him presses on his mind in such a way he almost feels like he can’t live without it.

At one point he even gets Yura’s gift out of his cupboard where he’d thrown it. He gulps at the look of it in its large, purple, silicone form and shoves it back in the cupboard, and then spends the next five minutes imagining slowly impaling himself on it.

He slowly realises that before he’d gained his aspect he would never have thought of it, of sleeping with a guy, but now it’s somewhat implied that one day he’ll be knotted. It might be a guy, or it might be a girl. But either of them will have roughly the same tool, and it’ll go in the same place. He’s just deluding himself that he’ll be able to escape his fate for a beautiful young beta wife.

He just needed Joonmyun to make him realise that. Without Joonmyun, he would still think he can have that, but he can’t.

Chanyeol realises, with the shock of the young and stubborn, that he wouldn’t mind his first time be with someone like Joonmyun. Joonmyun is, after all, _gorgeous_ , and trying to deny it is like trying to deny Chanyeol’s own state of being. Chanyeol’s always known that Joonmyun’s talented and attractive, it’s just taken this opportunity to make him fully aware of it.

It comes out of him like a bullet the next time he sees Joonmyun, before he can analyse it any longer and come up with reasons to not consent to this. He’s shaking all over, with nerves and fear and excitement, and it causes him to stumble over his words. “I’ll—I’ll do it,” he finally gets out, before he can get the better of himself.

“Both?” Joonmyun asks. Chanyeol can’t work out whether he’s surprised or pleased or both.

Chanyeol gives a short and sharp nod, not trusting himself to speak.

“Excellent,” Joonmyun says. “I’ll tell you where.” Then he smartly walks away, without a look behind him.

“You’re very chummy with Joonmyun-ssi these days,” Zitao says, when Chanyeol catches up with him, and the others, a few moments later. Zitao is wrapped tightly around Jongdae like he always is, doing his best to protect him from the outside world just by being there.

Just for a second, Chanyeol wonders if he will ever have someone like that.

“Celebrity disease,” Jongdae teases. “Thinks he can get away with everything because he’s an actor and a stud.”

“Why thank you,” Chanyeol jokes back. “It takes a lot to be this fabulous. I’m glad you recognise it.”

“Where on earth did these acting skills come from, I wonder?” Baekhyun asks airily. “You’ve been hiding them from us, haven’t you?”

Chanyeol can’t think of an appropriate answer to this at all.

\---

Joonmyun gives Chanyeol directions to an upmarket hotel; the kind you’d see managing directors take their mistresses to, so their wives don’t find out.

It’s a shiny white establishment with large windows only on the top four floors; high up enough that nobody in the surrounding buildings can see inside.

Joonmyun’s hotel room is on the top floor, and the receptionist gives him the most curious expression when he asks how to get to the room. Thankfully she doesn’t say anything. Chanyeol presumes she must be aware of who is in that room, and curious about Chanyeol’s reason to visit him. He does his best to look like he isn’t a fan. It seems to work—or she was told Joonmyun is expecting company—, as she directs him to a lift only for the top rooms, and swipes her card so that he can take it up to the top.

Joonmyun’s heat hasn’t come on yet, but he’s sitting in a button-up shirt and his underwear, staring out at the view. Up here, Chanyeol feels like he can see the whole world. It’s a powerful image.

It feels remarkably like the day of Chanyeol’s very first heat, as he sits and makes small-talk with Joonmyun until his heat strikes. Chanyeol can recognise the signs as soon as they start to present, from his experiences with other girls—and, of course, his own.

Joonmyun pulls off his clothes, completely unabashed about baring himself before Chanyeol. His cock is thick and pink and Chanyeol tries not to focus on it. He’s already nervous enough as it is.

Joonmyun does his best to help Chanyeol, seeing how nervous he is. “It’s not too different from a girl in heat, I think,” he pants. “Just this.” Chanyeol doesn’t need to look to know what he’s referring to. “Same lubrication. Just needs more stretching.” He takes Chanyeol’s hand and indicates where he’d like it. It just takes a few moments for the revulsion to trickle away before Chanyeol realises that it isn’t so bad.

It isn’t too unlike fucking any of the girls, Chanyeol realises when Joonmyun is clenching around him. The only thing that is different is the feeling of Joonmyun’s balls and cock against his torso as he thrusts in, and learns he can actually cope with that, funnily enough.

He stays the full day, alternating positions and angles, learning what’s different about a man’s body from a woman’s. He sleeps the night, and when he wakes up Joonmyun’s body is already up for another go.

Chanyeol isn’t able to stay the whole of Sunday, but Joonmyun understands.

“When’s your heat?” he asks just before Chanyeol leaves.

Chanyeol swallows, debating whether he should tell the truth. “Next weekend,” he finally settles on, looking down at his feet. “Probably starting Saturday as well.”

“I’ll keep the hotel booked,” Joonmyun says, sprawled back on the bed fully naked and not caring in the least. Chanyeol almost envies it about him—how easy everything seems to be for him. Chanyeol doesn’t think he could ever be as open and relaxed as Joonmyun. “You come here and I’ll help you.”

“Okay,” Chanyeol says.

He’s not sure whether he feels apprehensive or excited or some entirely different feeling, but he can’t deny that he’s impatient. It’s actually happening. (The sooner, the better.)

\---

It’s scary, Chanyeol thinks, as the week draws to a close and his heat gets nearer.

It’s been over a year since he’s gained his aspect, since he was that kid adamant he’d never take a knot, that kid who hated what he was and tried to ignore it.

And now he’s confronting his aspect like this. He’s taking what life threw at him and he’s going to try to deal with it in a healthier manner—a step closer to the way his body wants him to take it.

And he’s terrified.

Chanyeol hates showing fear. He’s always hated it—and not only because he’s always felt like fear makes him seem _weak_. People have always looked up to him. Fear is not something they expect him to have—or, at the very least, show.

But in his room, alone, he pulls his knees to under his chin, holding himself in place as the trembles run through him. In private, he’s allowed to be weak, to be scared. It’s unrealistic to expect anything more of him, anything less human.

On Friday, Chanyeol hurries around his room, trying to pack things he might need for the weekend. A change of clothes, his toothbrush and toothpaste, shampoo, condoms. He considers lube for a second before tossing it back into his drawer. If he’s not wet enough there’s something wrong.

His hands are shaking so much that he nearly drops everything as he crosses his room, and instead he manages to drop it all on his bed, his arms falling limply to his sides as he stares down at the mess he’s left. He doesn’t see any of it. All he’s thinking is that he can’t believe that in less than twenty-four hours he’ll know what it feels like to have a cock inside him.

His mother walks in just as he’s finishing packing everything into a bag, and she sees what he’s doing even though he’s never wanted her to know. He can’t be bothered to hide the bag, just leaves it there. The situation is clear. She’s well aware his heat starts tomorrow.

She studies him for a moment.

“Chanyeol,” she says. “Have you found someone to help you?” She doesn’t say it in a pressing way, just a gentle, slightly curious one. Chanyeol feels his cheeks heat up anyway as they both know the implications of what she’s saying.

He deliberately doesn’t look at her as he mutters about trying something out. “It’s just…to try,” he adds, repeating himself. “Just the once. See what the fuss is about.” He feels awkward saying the words out loud, but he makes himself say them. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t know what he’ll say.

“I’m so proud of you,” his mother says warmly. “I was a little worried, you know. It’s perfectly natural to want to find someone to help you through this. It’s what your body’s asking for.”

“Umma!” Chanyeol whines. He doesn’t need her to give him a sex talk—especially not now, when it’s going to happen so soon. He doesn’t want his mother to think about him having sex—that’s almost grosser than the actual having sex part. It _is_ kind of gross, thinking about it.

But she’s right—it’s necessary. He has to do it.

“Just remember to be careful.”

“I—I will,” Chanyeol promises her.

“And if you find your mate, or someone you want to live with forever, your father and I will welcome them with open arms,” she continues.

Chanyeol can’t stop the involuntary squeak from escaping. She just laughs and leaves the room, shutting the door behind her.

It’s good to know that she cares, because life could be extremely uncomfortable if she didn’t, but he still doesn’t like hearing it in such a way. The implications are too much.

\---

He gets to the hotel nice and early Saturday morning. Joonmyun lets him in with a smile.

“Relax,” he says, when he sees how Chanyeol’s trembling. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

Chanyeol shakes his head; he understands, but at the same time he won’t be cowed by anything. He’s promised himself to see this through.

It doesn’t take long for his heat to come on, and when it does it comes on so quickly that Chanyeol doesn’t even have time to be embarrassed that he’s soaking through his clothes in front of a celebrity.

It’s not like they haven’t seen each other naked before, but it’s different this time—and not just because Joonmyun has to help him undress because he’s too sweaty and turned-on to manage alone.

Joonmyun strokes Chanyeol’s upper thighs and then mouths against his cock. Chanyeol’s never had anything there aside from his hand during a heat, and a blowjob which would be good usually becomes amazing with the extra sensitivity and arousal. It doesn’t take long for him to come in Joonmyun’s mouth, over his lips and down over his neck. Joonmyun doesn’t seem too bothered—but then again, it seems like it takes a lot to get Joonmyun bothered.

Joonmyun is very careful with him at first, helping him get off a few times over the next couple of hours, before he asks if Chanyeol would like to be stretched.

Chanyeol nods, his eyes shut and his hands over his eyes.

Joonmyun’s finger is gentle but even so, Chanyeol has to slow his breathing down before his body will admit it. The squelch as it sinks in is obscene. The intrusion is uncomfortable at first, as he tries to get used to something there, and then Joonmyun starts to thrust his finger, knuckles against his rim, and Chanyeol starts to understand why this is pleasurable.

Three fingers in, stretching and probing and thrusting, has Chanyeol coming again, and the day is still young.

Chanyeol gets a little bit of a reprieve after this, so he gives Joonmyun a handjob—he doesn’t think he’s quite ready to be giving blowjobs yet.

He thinks he’s finally ready to actually _do_ it later in the day. They’d stopped for lunch and now it’s almost time for dinner. Full-on penetrative sex is probably just what he needs to build up his appetite.

Joonmyun rolls on a condom—even though omegas can’t get others pregnant, it’s always good to protect against diseases, although Chanyeol usually doesn’t bother with a condom (which is probably highly inadvisable considering how many people he’s had sex with)—and then uses Chanyeol’s own wetness to lube himself up. Then he positions himself at Chanyeol’s entrance, Chanyeol having been stretched well enough.

“Are you alright?” Joonmyun asks.

“Yes,” Chanyeol says. He’s as fine as he’ll be, about to have another guy’s dick inside him for the first time. He’s also extremely nervous, but Joonmyun doesn’t need to know that. What will it feel like? How will it _fit_?

“Okay,” Joonmyun says, and then he’s pushing inside.

Even with all the stretching as preparation, it hurts. His body freezes in place, his muscles seizing up.

Joonmyun strokes his sides and his hips. “Just relax,” he says, and then he leans as far up Chanyeol’s body as he can and bends Chanyeol roughly as he pulls his face down just enough to kiss him for the first time.

The kiss is slow and sensual and distracting, allowing Chanyeol’s body to settle and get used to the feeling of Joonmyun inside him; hot and pulsing and thicker than he’d imagined he’d feel. With the help of the kiss, he’s soon able to indicate that he’s alright.

Joonmyun pulls back and thrusts back in, large thrusts that cause Chanyeol’s whole body to shake. Each thrust brushes against his prostate, causing the pleasure to build up until he comes over the both of them for the umpteenth time. Joonmyun keeps going; fucking him through another orgasm and the oversensitivity until he has his own.

After dinner, which Chanyeol can barely eat on his own, Joonmyun helps Chanyeol onto his hands and knees and takes him from behind, which helps greatly—Chanyeol finds it more satisfying to be positioned like this, if only because Joonmyun basically had to bend him in half to kiss him when he was on his back. Chanyeol’s able to doze off after this, Joonmyun’s hand cool against his sweating hip.

“Good night,” Joonmyun says softly, leaning in to press a kiss against Chanyeol’s mouth as he drifts off, “and thank you.”

\---

Chanyeol wakes up alone.

He isn’t worried, until he realises that there are no sounds coming from within the hotel room—no sounds of water from the bathroom, breathing, or any sounds of footfalls. After a quick look around, Chanyeol realises that the hotel room is empty. Joonmyun’s shoes are gone.

Chanyeol drops onto the bed limply. It was too much to hope that he’d be able to help him more than he already has. Maybe he’d just been bad and Joonmyun no longer wants anything to do with him?

And then he spots the paper on the bedside table. It’s a letter, he sees, addressed to him.

The letter states that Joonmyun had to go—properly, because the drama is over and they’re going back home. He apologises for not telling Chanyeol. “I knew you wouldn’t agree if you knew,” Joonmyun writes, like apologies for lying are going to make it all better.

At the bottom of the letter is a phone number.

“I’ve called a friend of mine to help you out, if you still need it. He’s an omega too. If you want his help, just phone this number and he’ll come over quickly. He’s really good and I trust him.”

Chanyeol drops the letter aside and stares at the ceiling, his cock already hardening and curving towards his stomach, wetness starting to seep into the bedding beneath him. He could probably do with more help.

His pride doesn’t want him to ask, though. The whole idea of asking shows that he can’t cope alone. He _can’t_ , of course. He knows from months of experience that just relying on his own hand isn’t working so well, even with Joonmyun’s help to speed it up.

There’s still that murmur in the back of his mind saying that asking a _guy_ for help, when he’s _straight_ , is wrong. He shouldn’t have enjoyed what had happened between him and Joonmyun, even though he had. He shouldn’t want it again—even though he _does_.

After a few moments of arguing with himself, he gives in to his dick and his heat. He dials the phone number with the hotel phone before he can think any better of it.

“Hello?” he hears, after only one ring. “Is that Hyung’s friend?” He sounds young and surprisingly familiar, though Chanyeol can’t quite place his voice.

“Yes,” Chanyeol says.

“Would you like my help?”

“Uh,” Chanyeol says. “I…Joonmyun-hyung says you’re good, so.”

“It’s up to you!”

“Uh,” Chanyeol says again. He makes a face. “ _Please_ ,” he breathes, uncomfortable with saying the word but knowing that he has to. “Do you…do you know where I am?”

“Of course,” the voice says. “I’ll see you soon.” And then there’s just the dial-tone.

Chanyeol puts the phone back into its cradle and then stares at it, wondering what he’s just done. He doesn’t know who this person is. He could be _anyone_. But it’s too late to worry now.

Chanyeol does his best to work off his erection before Joonmyun’s friend gets there, but after the previous day it’s slow going. His body only wants one thing, and that’s not here yet.

Eventually he comes, body relaxing briefly. Chanyeol lies on the bed and waits.

It doesn’t seem to take long for Joonmyun’s friend to arrive—or maybe it’s forever. Chanyeol can’t tell.

There’s a knock on the door. Chanyeol wraps a sheet around his waist and crosses to open the door.

The person standing there is the tiniest young adult he’s ever seen—shorter even than Joonmyun and Jongdae. He has soft brown hair and round cheeks, which, coupled with his kind eyes, give the impression that he is much younger than Chanyeol. He looks like the quintessential “bottom”; unlike with Joonmyun, Chanyeol would have known he was an omega the moment he’d laid eyes on him, if he hadn’t already been aware. He has “stereotypical omega” written all over him.

He is also incredibly familiar, but Chanyeol still can’t place him.

The boy in the door looks surprised to see Chanyeol. “Oh,” he says. “Chanyeol? I wasn’t…you’re an omega?” Then he blinks. “Oh,” he continues, “I get it. Of _course_ you’re an omega.”

He comes inside the room, shucks his shoes and puts his bag down inside the door. Chanyeol shuts the door after him. He has the strangest feeling that he should recognise this boy, but that his inability to remember the names of omegas has made him forget.

The boy sighs, as he turns to look at Chanyeol. “You look like you have no idea who I am. I don’t know why I’m surprised. To you, the only omega who exists is Jongdae.”

Chanyeol realises, with a jolt of surprise and horror, that this is one of his classmates—or, at the very least, someone who he goes to school with. One of his classmates knows that he’s an omega.

He crosses to the bed and sinks down upon it, dropping his head into his hands for a moment. “You won’t tell anyone, will you?” he asks quietly.

“That you’re not a beta?” the boy asks. He almost sounds insulted at the implications. “No, I don’t tell other people’s secrets for them. Especially not ones they may be ashamed of.”

Chanyeol dry-swallows. “I’m—it’s—”

“No,” the other boy says, crossing his arms. “I know you’re ashamed of being an omega, and that’s why you’ve lied to everyone. I get it, really I do. I see the way people look at you, and you know what? They’re right. You stick out like a sore thumb. But you can’t pretend forever. You’re going to have to admit it to yourself and your friends. You’re going to have to stop lying. How else are you going to find your mate?”

Chanyeol bristles. Who does this boy think he is, giving him a lecture on who he is and what he should do? Why does he think Chanyeol’s going to listen to him, anyway?

“Chanyeol,” he says. “Don’t look at me like I just kicked your puppy. I’m in the same classes as you. I see how you react every day to people and insults and things you don’t agree with. I’ve seen how you react to omegas with disdain and disgust for their very being—you once joked that a girl I am friends with ‘probably needs three cocks in her to stop her up each month’.” The expression on his face is of disgust and Chanyeol looks down at his hands in shame. He doesn’t remember saying it, but it sounds so much like something he would have said before becoming an omega that he knows it’s true. Hearing it said back to him makes his stomach churn. “I know that you have this image of having sex with lots of omega girls—a lady-killer. I’m pretty sure that you’re terrified people will find out what you and Joonmyun-hyung did, and that I’m here to do the same thing. I’m not going to tell anyone what we do together. But if it gets out before you tell anyone, it’s going to be a _lot_ worse for you.”

Chanyeol realises, with some horror, that he’s right. He’d lied to his friends because he couldn’t bear to see their disgust. He was terrified that his coach would find out, so he’d quit the team himself. If it comes out now, he’ll lose everyone he cares about. He’s lied to them for too long.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, looking down at his hands. “I’m sorry I said that about your friend. I’m sorry I don’t remember your name. I’m sorry I’m—I’m so _scared_.” It hurts him to admit it, and getting the words out is tricky. He still can’t look up at the other boy.

So the boy kneels before him, looking up at Chanyeol with more care than he’d have expected from someone who’s just told him off. Kneeling, he barely comes up past Chanyeol’s knees, but he’s in the right place to place a hand on his knee, still covered by the sheet. “My name is Jinho,” he says. “We’ve been at school together since we were five. We once had to do a chemistry experiment together and we almost lost our eyebrows.”

Chanyeol blinks at him, taking in Jinho’s words slowly. “Oh,” he says. Thinking hard, he remembers the experiment. He remembers the fear in Jinho’s eyes when the fire came too close. He remembers knocking Jinho out of the way. “What should I do?”

“To make amends? About what you said to Leeyoung—I think you should apologise to her. You should apologise to all the girls you’ve called names and talked badly about. And you should make an effort to learn our names. I know you don’t remember the names of any of the girls you’ve slept with and they deserve better than the sexist nicknames I’ve heard you use.”

“They’re not sexist,” Chanyeol protests. “They’re _identifying_.”

“You called one of them _Tits_ ,” Jinho argues.

He has a point. He seems to have a lot of those.

“Okay,” Chanyeol says. “I’ll—I’ll try.”

“Good,” Jinho says, and he rubs Chanyeol’s knee with his thumb gently. “Anyway,” he starts, “I didn’t come here to lecture you. I came here to help you. Do you need me?”

Chanyeol’s been soft this whole time. He wonders if his heat is over—it had taken a long time for him to come that last time. “I don’t know,” he says. “I—I really don’t know.” He drops his head back into his hands.

“It’s okay,” Jinho says soothingly. “Hyung will look after you.”

“You’re not even my hyung,” Chanyeol says, and then he feels the tell-tale prickle of heat flood his body. Not over yet. “Oh—it’s starting.”

“Okay,” Jinho says. “I’m going to kiss you now,” he adds, and then, pushing himself up via Chanyeol’s knees, does so, as if to settle the issue. It only takes Chanyeol a few moments before he kisses back—maybe not as enthusiastically as Jinho would have liked, but enough to prove that he wants, and is enjoying, it.

Kissing Jinho isn’t anything like kissing Joonmyun. Jinho is soft, reassuring, but with a kind of focus Joonmyun had been lacking. Chanyeol finds kissing Jinho almost _comforting_.

Jinho helps push Chanyeol backwards onto the bed, settling over him without disconnecting their mouths. He’s so tiny that his knee is barely below Chanyeol’s crotch. Chanyeol can’t understand how they’ll be able to have sex considering how short he is—it had been difficult enough with Joonmyun. But Jinho doesn’t seem to have any worries at all.

The sheet is gone next. Chanyeol _does_ feel embarrassed this time, as Jinho rakes his eyes over his naked form; his cock curving up towards his stomach with pre-come beading at the tip.

It only takes a few minutes for Jinho to scramble out of his clothes, tugging his hoodie and t-shirt over his head in one swift movement, and then dropping his trousers. His body is more muscled than Chanyeol would have thought, but at the same time he still looks young. Chanyeol can’t believe that he’s eighteen.

Jinho doesn’t really waste much time teasing Chanyeol. He strokes Chanyeol briskly—his hands are warm and firm around his dick—through his first assisted orgasm of the day, and then instantly rolls Chanyeol over. “Hands and knees is best,” he says, settling behind Chanyeol, who pushes himself up into the correct position. “Just like that.”

A second later there’s a finger pressing gently against his entrance. Jinho’s fingers aren’t as long as Joonmyun’s when they slip inside, but they’re equally as skilled, helping to stretch him. Chanyeol’s still a bit stretched from the day before, so it doesn’t seem to take long for him to be fully comfortable and ready.

“I would eat you out,” Jinho says conversationally, “but natural lube tastes nothing like strawberries.”

Chanyeol jerks at this in surprise, and Jinho’s fingers push in a bit deeper, just about brushing his prostate, causing a rush of pleasure to run through him.

He’s never considered _that_ an option—he’s never thought it could be pleasurable to do anything in that area, or, at the very least, hygienic. But it’s been proven to him that some things there _are_ pleasurable. He’s come to the late conclusion that he likes being fingered. He might have enjoyed _that_ too, though he can’t imagine ever desiring to put his tongue there for anyone else, his mate or otherwise.

“Are you ready?” Jinho asks, spreading the four fingers pushed in up to the second knuckle, and Chanyeol breathes out an agreement, trying to relax his body. Even though he’s expecting it, he knows he’ll tense up when Jinho enters him.

He does, but the preparation helps ease his body quicker, and the slide in is slow but easy. Jinho sets a fast pace, but he’s careful not to be too rough with Chanyeol, which he’s grateful for. He’s not yet ready for anything like that.

Jinho helps him get off several times before his heat begins to subside. Chanyeol lies back on the bed, fully naked, as they order a late lunch to be delivered to their door.

“So,” he asks, thinking of something that’s been bothering him since Jinho had first arrived, “how do you know Joonmyun-hyung?”

“Oh,” Jinho says, rolling to face him. “He’s in love with my brother.”

Chanyeol blinks in surprise, because he hadn’t been expecting that.

“My brother’s a beta,” Jinho continues. “I think Joonmyun-hyung is scared because they’re friends and they’re not likely to be mates. He doesn’t want to lose Hyung. So I offered to help him out during heats instead of my brother. We’ve been helping each other out since I turned fifteen.” He sighs. “It’d be nice if he’d tell Kyuhyun-hyung, but I understand—he’s scared that they’re not mates, that he’s in love with someone who can never love him back. It must suck.”

Chanyeol agrees with this assessment. He can’t imagine ever being devoted to someone if he doesn’t have confirmation that they’re _his_ to love. He doesn’t want to fall for someone else’s mate. That just wouldn’t be fair on _anyone_. “Maybe they’re mates,” he says. “Just look at Jongdae and Zitao.”

“It’s possible,” Jinho agrees. “At the very least, Joonmyun-hyung should ask Kyuhyun-hyung to help him with his heat. That way it won’t be too awkward if they’re not mates. And if they _are_ , well…” Jinho smiles, his whole face lighting up.

Chanyeol nods in agreement. “I agree,” he says.

“I can always hint that I won’t be around when Joonmyun-hyung’s heat comes,” Jinho suggests. “Is that too cruel?”

Chanyeol laughs. “No, I think that’s fine.”

Jinho grins. “Well, then let’s see what happens.”

\---

Chanyeol is able to go into school on Monday for the first time since he first gained his aspect, due to the assistance of Joonmyun and Jinho, even though they’re not alphas. His friends are surprised to see him.

“I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow,” Baekhyun says, eyes wide with false shock. “This is a first.”

“I was beginning to think you just didn’t like the third Monday of every month,” Jongdae says.

It seems silly, when Jongdae words it like that, that they haven’t worked it out yet, but Jongdae looks so sincere, so surprised to see him. Chanyeol feels obliged to laugh it off.

He very firmly doesn’t look over at Jinho, who’s sitting in the row in front of Chanyeol and is curved around to look at him with curious eyes. Chanyeol had almost said hello to Jinho that morning, but then stopped himself when he realised that it would look suspicious. Being a jerk isn’t so fun when he’s aware of it.

“Maybe I wanted to see what you guys were doing without me,” Chanyeol offers, with a laugh. “Can’t let you have all of the fun.”

Baekhyun and Jinho roll their eyes simultaneously, although Chanyeol presumes (and hopes) for different reasons.

“You’re ridiculous,” Baekhyun says good-naturedly, before he shakes his head and crosses back to his own seat. Jongdae follows a moment later. He’s two seats away from Jinho, who he says hello to with a smile and a wave. Between them is the last Kim in their class; another omega who Chanyeol works out, after thinking particularly hard for a few moments, is called Kim Seokjin. He distantly thinks that he may have done a project with Seokjin once, before he gained his aspect and Chanyeol forgot about him.

Chanyeol sighs. Jinho is right. He needs to make more of an effort.

He gets the chance when he and Jinho are assigned a project together, their names pulled out of a hat sequentially. Chanyeol finds it an interestingly lucky coincidence.

“Okay,” Jinho says, after he drags his chair down to Chanyeol’s. “Let’s do this.” He gives Chanyeol a knowing, and somewhat _pretty_ , smile.

Chanyeol instantly berates himself for the thought, and looks away. He’s _straight_.

\---

Jinho, amidst their project sessions, helps Chanyeol remember the names of all the omega girls he’s slept with. It’s a remarkably long list for only a year’s worth.

Chanyeol can remember all of their nicknames (Tits, Smiley, Eyes, Legs, Curly—for both sets of hair—, Peach, and so on), even if he can’t remember all their faces, which helps Jinho distinguish them. Jinho hasn’t exactly been around since the beginning, but he does know a lot of the omega girls in their school.

Chanyeol notes all the girls’ names next to their nicknames, but most of them are unimportant (Tits—Bae Woohee, and Eyes—Song Jieun—, and so many of the other girls have already finished school), except for the ones still at school. At the top of the list are Smiley and Legs—or, as he learns, Kim Dasom and Park Sunyoung. He rolls them over in his mouth to remember them and then decides that he should probably do something nice for them for being—well, to be honest, they’re kind of his _friends_ now, even though he couldn’t exactly remember their names. He knows a lot about their behaviours and personalities, and not _just_ how they like to be fucked.

“Dasom, Sunyoung,” he says warmly, the next time he sees the girls together, deciding to begin his own personality improvement. Jinho gives him an approving pat on the arm before walking past, hiding behind the girls to be less obvious. “Do you want to come out with me this weekend?”

The girls look at each other for a moment, somehow seeming to communicate via their eyes. Eventually they turn to face him, Sunyoung tossing her long brown hair over her shoulder.

“What do you want to do?”

“Maybe go to the cinema?” Chanyeol offers. “There’s a couple of new films on. I just thought that we haven’t really…hung out much. We’re always busy when we’re together, all of us.”

He thinks those words must have been the right ones, because both girls blush. “Only if there’s another guy,” Dasom says. “Not the both of us with you.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol says, and then, a little louder, “Jin—Jino—you’re coming, right?”

Jinho jerks in surprise. “Me?” he asks. When Chanyeol nods, he manages, “Uh, sure.”

Dasom’s smile is wonderfully toothy—she wasn’t nicknamed _Smiley_ for nothing—and Sunyoung’s, almost as pretty, stretches across her face. They both seem very excited, and they agree happily. Chanyeol has their mobile numbers from the times he’d helped them out, so he promises to phone them to confirm the times and dates at the end of the week. The girls hurry away to their class.

“That was unfair,” Jinho says. “What if I’d been busy?”

“You weren’t,” Chanyeol says, and then he ruffles Jinho’s hair quickly on instinct, messing it up. Jinho pouts as he has to stop in his tracks to fix it.

“You’re mean,” he whines.

Chanyeol just sticks his tongue out in response.

\---

The weekend cinema trip with the girls and Jinho is fun. Chanyeol buys all the tickets with his saved-up pocket money, thankful that he gets a deal on them—cinema tickets aren’t cheap. The girls each buy a bucket of popcorn to share with the boys, and they sit between them in the row. Chanyeol is next to Dasom, who whispers silly things in his ear from time to time. Chanyeol wonders why he’d never done this before—and then remembers. Omegas.

They get food afterwards, sitting in the shopping centre’s food court and chatting about the film over chicken. They’re halfway through their meal when two guys who Chanyeol recognises from the football team come over to their table—the Captain before Cheolyong, and his best friend. Chanyeol refuses to think their names, because names have power, and Chanyeol had been terrified of them—and he still is, remembering their threats. They stand above the group like dark shadows. Chanyeol does his best to look like he’s not afraid, but he’s not sure he’s managing it.

“Hello girls,” the old Captain says. “What a lovely little table of omegas.”

Chanyeol feels his breath catch in his throat. There’s no way that he knows, surely?

“Just hanging out with omegas makes omega germs rub off on you,” the old Captain’s companion says. “You may as well be an omega.”

Chanyeol swallows hard, trying to breathe normally. His secret isn’t out yet.

“It’s so gross,” the Captain continues. “Omegas are so gross.”

“I hear you’re off the team now, omega boy,” the companion continues, looking down his nose at Chanyeol. His eyes are too close together, and they’re filled with amused malice. “Probably a good thing.”

“Now, now, don’t say that. Chanyeol wasn’t that bad.” Chanyeol thinks it’s a compliment and is surprised, until he continues with, “For a baby omega. You grew into your looks boy, you’re so lucky we left before you gained your aspect.” He leans over Chanyeol to breathe into his ear and Chanyeol can’t escape the shudder that runs through his whole body as the hot air hits his skin. The old captain had threatened to do so much to him, never quite saying it aloud, but Chanyeol isn’t stupid. He’s always known what had been implied.

“We’d best be off,” the old Captain says finally, trailing his finger over Chanyeol’s throat and up to his ears. “We’ve got real girls to see, none of your omega nonsense.” And then they’re gone as quickly as they’d arrived.

But Chanyeol doesn’t feel safe. Instead, his skin is crawling, and he curls in on himself for a moment before standing up and walking hastily to the nearest toilets. They’re thankfully empty, and he walks straight over to the sinks. His reflection in the mirror is white as a ghost and he lets out a sob, a tear escaping. He tries to splash his face and his arms, trying to get rid of the feeling his old teammates had left behind on him, but it’s difficult. He throws himself into the nearest toilet cubicle, brings his knees up to his chest, and just cries into the fabric of his jeans, not entirely sure why he’s so upset.

He’s alone for some moments, just trying to calm himself down, because none of this had been expected. Then the door to the toilets opens, and Chanyeol tries to quieten himself. He doesn’t want anyone else to know.

“Chanyeol?” comes Jinho’s voice, sounding worried. “Are you in here?”

Chanyeol lets out another sob.

The footsteps cross the room quicken, until Chanyeol can see Jinho’s shoes underneath the toilet door.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. They’ve gone,” Jinho says. “Let me in.”

Chanyeol stares at the door for a moment, wondering if he should, before leaning over to unlock the door. Jinho’s seen worse.

“It’s okay,” Jinho repeats, shutting the door behind him. “It’s really okay. Will you let me distract you?”

Chanyeol looks up at him, aware that he must be looking as awful as he had the first time he’d met Jinho and had broken down, and nods.

Jinho places his hand on Chanyeol’s knee and does the same thing he’d done that time too—he kisses Chanyeol, gently and warmly. This time Chanyeol reciprocates a little more enthusiastically, immersing himself in the sensations. A moment later, when Chanyeol’s no longer crying, Jinho breaks their kiss.

“You look much better now,” he says. “Do you feel up to coming back?”

Chanyeol swallows and nods. He does his best to wash his face to hide the tear tracks, but it doesn’t really work. At least now the skin crawling has stopped.

Dasom and Sunyoung are still where they’d left them.

“Are you alright?” Sunyoung asks. Chanyeol nods silently.

Dasom frowns at him. “Is being taken for an omega really that bad?” she asks, although Chanyeol can hear that she’s trying to keep her voice light. “I mean, it could be worse.” She laughs. “You betas have it easy.”

Chanyeol swallows, and looks down at his hands, which are in his lap, clenching and unclenching constantly. Jinho reaches out a hand to take one of his, and gently strokes the knuckle.

Chanyeol has never considered telling anyone about what he really is, not directly—Joonmyun had worked it out without Chanyeol saying anything, and had told Jinho—, but maybe it’s just getting too hard to lie. “I’m not,” comes barrelling out of him before he can stop it, before he can think about what he’s saying.

“Not what?” Dasom asks, her brow furrowed.

He has to swallow again, and he feels Jinho squeeze his hand. He squeezes back, grateful for the anchor. “A beta.”

Both girls look at him with wide eyes. “You…lied to us?” Dasom asks. “But why would you do that?”

“Because he _is_ an omega,” Sunyoung breathes.

“Oh,” Dasom says. Her voice sounds strange, but Chanyeol can’t see her expression because he’s looking back at his hands, his fingers linked with Jinho’s. Right now, they’re more comforting than the accusatory faces of the girls. “I didn’t see that one coming.”

“The most wanted guy in our school is an omega,” Sunyoung says. “That’s actually really sad. Two hundred omega girls probably just died inside. It’s like if you’d told us you like boys.” She pauses, and her next word is exclaimed with a sort of gleeful note to it, “Oh!”

Chanyeol finds himself looking up at her. Her eyes are wide and sparkling, as she looks between him and Jinho. “No—” Chanyeol starts, but she interrupts.

“You’re the cutest boyfriends,” she says, and coos.

“We’re not boyfriends,” Chanyeol grumbles.

“You look like boyfriends,” Dasom says, in agreement with Sunyoung. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t come out of that bathroom with kiss-swollen lips.”

Chanyeol can’t argue with that, because he’s pretty sure that it’s true.

“And look at you now,” Sunyoung says, pointing down at their hands, still joined by the fingers. “Oh it’s so cute, I’m so jealous.”

Chanyeol looks at Jinho, who hasn’t said anything for some moments now. He looks happy, as if the conversation isn’t weird to him. “Jinho!” he complains.

Jinho shrugs. “I’m not bothered,” he says, smiling. “I could do a lot worse than an omega as cute as you.” He lifts his free hand to pat Chanyeol on the shoulder and face rather patronisingly, thumb then stroking Chanyeol’s jaw somewhat fondly. Chanyeol bristles and pulls out of his grasp. He’s had _enough_. It’s just suddenly got too much for him.

“I’m not gay!” he hisses. “I’m not! So we’re not in a relationship and I’m not interested in guys and I’m just—” He shakes his head. “I’m going home. Thanks for the day, I’ve had fun.” He bows quickly and then storms off towards his home, where nobody ever accuses him of being gay.

\---

In order to prove it to everyone that he’s not gay, Chanyeol, in quick succession, finds four beta girls (Lee Jieun, Lee Mijoo, Choi Jinri and Kim Seolhyun) interested in sleeping with him. He enjoys the sex, but he comes out of it feeling somewhat hollow and empty and not entirely sure why.

He avoids Jinho as best he can, despite sharing a class with him. He sticks to his friends like glue and ignores all omegas aside from Jongdae. He needs to confirm who he is for himself.

It’s a strangely lonely existence, and it does nothing except make him somewhat miserable. Chanyeol doesn’t understand what’s happening to him.

At night he dreams about being knotted; someone taking him from behind, cock swelling up within him, even though he doesn’t know how that would even feel. More than once he finds himself absently looking for the toy before catching himself and shutting the cupboard.

There are two heats until Chanyeol’s schooling ends and he heads off to university, to a new place, with new people, where, if he wanted, he could be open about who he really is. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He doesn’t want to go back to sharing his heat with just his hand, but he needs to prove to himself that he isn’t gay.

He considers asking one of the girls to help him, but instantly dismisses the idea. That’s far too uncomfortable for him. The only possible suggestion he can think of, that might actually _work_ , is to find a female alpha who is interested, but he hasn’t a clue where to start. There are plenty of female alphas who he goes to school with, but he doesn’t want anyone at school to know.

He also knows that Yura has plenty of female alpha friends her age, but he doesn’t want to give her any more ammunition to use against him; she already has ample amounts of blackmail-worthy knowledge if she wanted to use it, and he doesn’t intend to give her any more.

He can’t ask any of his friends for obvious reasons, and he doesn’t want to speak to Jinho before he’s proved to himself that he doesn’t _need_ him.

In the end he goes on Naver and searches for ways to find alphas. Naver very helpfully informs him that there are a couple of clubs in the area, specifically for omegas to meet alphas in a safe environment. The rules are simple: wear your wristband, bring ID, don’t go when you’re in or nearing heat, and approach alphas first.

There are almost two weeks until his heat, so Chanyeol supposes that this is as good a time as any to go scouting for alphas. He picks one of the clubs that is on the tube line and spends a good afternoon hunting around his room for his blue wristband, which has remained in the same place since he’d thrown it there so long ago. It feels strange and bright so he tugs his hoodie sleeves down over his hands to cover it and then heads out on Wednesday evening, after telling his parents that he’s going to Jongdae’s.

It takes forty minutes on the tube and he fidgets, flicking through music on his phone and switching songs before they reach the two-minute mark. He winds up listening to Joonmyun’s OSTs on repeat, using them to calm himself down. Chanyeol hasn’t seen Joonmyun since the day he’d left. He doesn’t know when the drama is going to be released, but he’s both looking forward to it and completely apprehensive. If he watches Joonmyun, it’s possible that all he’ll think about is the fact that they’ve had sex.

He absorbs himself in his distractions until his stop. He’s careful, making sure that he’s quickly out of the tube station and on his way to the club. He hopes that if anyone sees him, he can pretend he’s there as a beta. Betas don’t tend to use the clubs, but they’re not forbidden to use them, and there can be beta and alpha matches from club meetings. Or so Naver had told him.

There’s a fee to get into the club, and the woman who takes his money examines his wristband and ID with an expressionless face. It doesn’t stop Chanyeol from being nervous and wondering what she’s thinking—whether she’s confused that he’s not an alpha, or if she sees a lot of omegas who don’t fit stereotypes.

There aren’t many people inside the club, even though Naver had said that Wednesday is the best day for newcomers to go. Chanyeol doesn’t recognise anyone, which he’s grateful for. He’d travelled forty minutes to get here; he certainly doesn’t want rumours spreading in school, regardless of whether there are only two months there left or not.

Of the people who are there, two are quite clearly in some kind of relationship, from the way they’re all over each other in the dark corner next to the bar. There are two women at the bar, sitting together and chatting to each other. They’re both wearing green wristbands and are utterly _beautiful_ , and Chanyeol swallows.

He squares his shoulders and takes a deep breath, but he’s still too shy to approach them. Instead he sits two seats away and orders a Coke from the bar.

After a few moments their conversation stops. The girl closest to him says, “Excuse me, but you’re new, right?”

Chanyeol turns to face her. She has long reddish-brown hair and pretty eyes. She’s comfortably dressed in a baggy white sweatshirt and shorts but she doesn’t look any less smart for it.

“Yes,” he says formally. “You could tell?”

“Jihyun and I have been coming here for ages,” she says, indicating her companion, a girl with shoulder-length dark hair, dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and skinny jeans. “We’d recognise you!”

“Are you here to look for a companion?” Jihyun asks.

Chanyeol lifts his wrist so that they can see the wristband. Once again, if they had been expecting him to be anything other than an omega, they don’t show it. The lack of response is almost comforting. “Yeah,” he says.

“When’s your next heat?” the red-haired girl asks.

Chanyeol makes a face at his drink before saying, “Next weekend.”

“Would you like our help with that?”

Chanyeol jerks his head up so quickly he almost gives himself whiplash. The girls laugh, but it’s not unkindly. “Really?”

“Of course,” Jihyun says. “Ailee-unnie and I have shared omegas before.”

“But what if one of you mates with your omega?” he asks before he can stop it. “Won’t it be awkward then?”

“We’ll manage,” Ailee says. “It’s okay.”

“Just give us your phone number and we can make arrangements,” Jihyun says. She smiles at him. It’s comforting enough that he takes their phones and inputs his number and name.

They introduce themselves to each other properly—they’re called Amy Lee and Kang Jihyun, and are both older than him—and sit chatting until Chanyeol has to leave to get his train back home. The girls clearly know exactly what they’re doing, especially with male omegas, and Chanyeol is grateful. That will certainly reassure him a lot, so he doesn’t spend the next ten days scared about what’ll come. It’s going to happen one way or another, and Chanyeol would rather be excited than afraid. He’ll try.

\---

The days speed by in a haze of studying, and soon it’s Saturday morning.

They meet at a hotel, different from the one he’d been to for Joonmyun. Jihyun meets him at the door, dressed in a sleeveless shirt and short shorts; a far cry from what she’d been wearing at the club.

“Come in,” she says, and he steps in after her, removing his shoes at the door.

She explains that she’ll help him until lunchtime, when Ailee will come. “If you still need our help tomorrow, we’ll do the same,” she says. “How long are your heats?”

“Three to four days,” Chanyeol says. 

“And with help?” she asks. 

“Um,” Chanyeol says, flushing with embarrassment. “Two?”

She nods her head in response, and then heads over to the bed.

It’s very easy to get naked with her; she’s beautiful and evidently desires this, and Chanyeol would like to think it’s excitement that hastens his heat.

Jihyun sits with her legs splayed, fingers between her legs, as his heat builds. When he’s hard, he begins to stroke himself to her movements, eyes focused on her fingers. She pushes him down onto the bed and straddles his waist, positioning herself and then sheathing herself on his cock.

Chanyeol has never been inside anyone during his heat, and it’s an entirely different experience from usual; everything’s hotter, tighter. The slide is smooth and slippery and it feels amazing. He rocks into her faster and faster until he comes impossibly quickly.

Jihyun pulls off him and crawls up his body. “If you want me to knot you,” she says conversationally, “you need to help me.”

The only time Chanyeol has ever eaten a girl out was with Joohee, but he understands the basic principles. When Jihyun settles on his face, he does his best to lick and suck until she’s moaning loudly.

She reaches between her legs when he pulls back to breathe and does something—he doesn’t know what—but the next moment he has something thin and long in his mouth. He does his best to keep sucking around the flesh in his mouth until she pulls back and he sees it. Even though he’d thought it was basically a dick, it isn’t really. It’s much thinner and the skin feels different. But it can knot him, unlike Joonmyun and Jinho.

Jihyun rolls a condom especially for female alphas down her length and then helps stretch Chanyeol, her fingers gentle but purposeful. “The knot will hurt,” she warns. “It’ll keep us connected for some minutes.”

Chanyeol nods anyway, because he needs it. He needs to prove to himself that this is what he wants, what he needs.

It’s no different from Joonmyun or Jinho, although she’s much narrower than they are. She still stretched him a lot though, so he feels odd, like there’s more space than required. But he knows that it will be necessary when her knot begins to swell.

It doesn’t take long—five minutes or so of brushing against his prostate—, before he comes again, and she keeps going. He swells again quickly, and then he can feel it beginning with her; her knot filling him gradually until it’s tight, and still growing.

It’s unlike anything he’s ever felt before; even after the experience of being fucked for the first time. That had hurt, but this hurts so much more. It feels like if she’s ripping him apart from the inside. Tears stream down his cheeks and he presses his face forward into the pillow to blot them.

He’s never heard much about knots, but everything he’s heard makes it sound like it’s something he’s going to want. He can’t imagine ever wanting this feeling again. At the same time, he’s wondering if everyone’s knot is different; the way dicks are all different sizes. Maybe she’s too big for him, but she’ll be just right for someone else.

Even though it hurts, her knot presses against his prostate, pushing him into another orgasm that feels nothing like the ones he’d had before with help. This is an empty orgasm, not one caused by pleasure.

Her knot stays inside him for fifteen minutes, but it feels so, so much longer.

Jihyun must sense his misery, for when her knot loosens she pulls out of him and helps him lie down, her body back to how it was when they first started. Chanyeol doesn’t entirely understand how that works, but he doesn’t want to ask. “Did it hurt a lot?” she asks, worry marring her face.

Chanyeol nods again, and raises his hands to rub at his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he says.

“It’s not your fault,” Jihyun says. “I know my knot can get really big. You’re not the first omega I’ve had cry on me, nor is your reaction the worst I’ve had. There was a girl once who couldn’t stand for over an hour after I helped her. She was terrified that I’d ripped the condom because she didn’t understand how it could stretch with my knot.”

Chanyeol blinks. “You help female omegas, too?” he asks.

Jihyun nods. “I mean, why not?” she asks. “If I have a tool that can help them, I will.”

They keep chatting until Ailee arrives, leaving Chanyeol’s body to relax and grow hard again on its own. Chanyeol isn’t sure that he wants Ailee’s knot now, but Jihyun, as she pulls her clothes on, assures him that Ailee is smaller than Jihyun is and therefore might be a better fit for him. Chanyeol nods and promises to give it a try.

Ailee is far more patient and gentle with him than Jihyun, and she doesn’t ask for his help either. Like Jihyun, she starts by sliding down his length, which distracts Chanyeol from what’s going to happen next. She’s tighter than Jihyun, and, unlike Jihyun, fucks him until she comes as well, one hand on her breast and one against her clit.

Insistent fingers against her clit causes the growth to happen and Chanyeol watches with wide and confused eyes as her clit seems to grow and morph. It clearly doesn’t hurt her, and in fact she seems to enjoy the change. It’s presumably pleasurable, because Chanyeol can’t see the point if it would hurt the alpha. Female alphas would have long died out if so, or they wouldn’t be able to knot omegas—like betas, but only with alpha pheromones.

She’s efficient with Chanyeol, who doesn’t need much stretching after Jihyun but is grateful for it anyway. Her fingers are gentle and somewhat soothing, and he can imagine her fingers non-sexually massaging his insides, which is a somewhat odd thought to have, but also desirable right now.

She’s not as thick as Jihyun, when she’s pushing inside, which agrees with what Jihyun had said. Her knot is also not as large, and therefore hurts less as it swells—more of a throb than outright pain. But it still isn’t enjoyable for Chanyeol. He wonders why; they’re both stunning girls and they should get him all hot and bothered, but they’re just doing nothing for him. Their knots are painful and the sex in general, despite helping him get off, just isn’t what he was expecting.

He only comes once more with the press of her knot. Afterwards, she just helps him get off with her mouth and hand, understanding instinctively that it will be better for him.

“Thank you for your help,” Chanyeol says, once he thinks it’s settled down for the day.

“Do you need our help tomorrow?” Ailee asks, but it’s more dutifully than inquiring. She’s clearly already worked out that he’ll say no.

He heads back home, deciding to do it himself if his heat is still going the next day. It’s got to be better than this pain.

\---

Chanyeol wakes up hard and sweating and in pain. He realises that being knotted by the girls hasn’t helped him at all—in fact, it may have made it slightly worse. He doesn’t really understand this.

He finds himself looking at his cupboard again and swallows.

He locks his door and then steels himself, getting the toy out of the cupboard and checking its batteries. It’s worth trying it at least once; just to see what it’s like, though watching the thrusting mechanism work scares him a little.

This, of course, requires him to stretch himself, as there’s nobody else to do it. He swallows hard as he moves his hand to where he needs it.

It’s a little bit awkward to slide fingers inside himself, feeling the slide of his lubrication against his skin. It makes him shudder a little, but at the same time it feels much better than he’s had. He knows how many fingers he can take and how to position them to make it feel good far better than anyone else does.

There is a suction cup in the box the toy had been in and he fastens it to the bottom of the toy and then to the wall. Standing on shaky legs, he moves backwards so that the tip of the toy presses against him. Carefully, he slides it inside himself. It’s thicker than both girls but there’s a familiarity to the feeling that makes it more comfortable, even as he lets his body get used to the intrusion.

He switches it on so that it begins thrusting and his legs threaten to buckle instantly. The position he’s in means that it’s hitting exactly where he needs it to every time, and he has to hold onto a chair to stay upright. He presses a button on the base so that it begins to move faster and before he knows it he’s coming, cock untouched, across the back of the chair, grateful that it’s wood and will clean easily.

He doesn’t give himself any reprieve, just lets the toy continue fucking him until he’s hard again. This time he switches on the knotting function, hoping that it won’t hurt so much.

It does hurt, but mostly because he already hurt. Chanyeol thinks that the simulated knot feels very different from the real thing, in a much more pleasurable way. It seems to fit much better inside him, even as it swells up to a seemingly impossible size. Chanyeol wonders if that’s merely because it’s a toy, or if the girls’ knots just weren’t right for him.

The thought going through his mind is that maybe his body doesn’t _want_ the knot of a female. Maybe what he needs is another cock—after all, that’s what the toy was based on. But he doesn’t want to believe it.

When he wakes up on Monday his heat is over, and Chanyeol still doesn’t want to believe what his body is telling him. He’s always thought he was straight, but this is proof that he isn’t.

As he looks over at Jongdae and Zitao, curled together as they share their lunch, Chanyeol feels an inexplicable tightening in his chest. He tells himself he’s just jealous of the couple, who are obviously so in love; they have each other whilst he’s alone.

It’s only partly true.

\---

“So,” his mother says, on Tuesday, “I was cleaning out the car and I found this.” She hands him a card. “I’m pretty sure it’s yours.”

Chanyeol realises that it’s the card the doctor had given him for the omega specialist. It was such a long time ago that he’d actually forgotten.

“I think,” she goes on carefully, “that you should phone her. You’re not happy, Chanyeol.”

“I’m fine,” Chanyeol starts, but she interrupts.

“No, you’re not fine. Your father and I have been watching you steadily get more miserable since you got your aspect. We know you wanted to be an alpha and this hasn’t been what you thought would be, but it’s clearly had a negative impact on you. You can’t be happy if you don’t like yourself.”

“I’m just growing up,” Chanyeol tries to explain. “There are some things…”

“Talk to her,” his mother says, her voice more gentle than before. “It’ll do you a lot of good, I think.”

It takes Chanyeol a few moments to decide whether he should call the specialist—her name is Fan Bingbing, if what the card says is correct. He wonders how she got into omega studies in the first place. She must be a beta, because omegas aren’t allowed to go into medicine or science. There’s a limited option of careers that he will be able to have.

Following on from that, he wonders if she’s mated. How would her mate feel about her being around omegas all the time? Would she smell of omegas? Would it make him jealous?

He thinks that it’s not like he needs to say much to her; he can just say that he’s fine and move on, even though he isn’t fine. He’s _still_ not sure if he’ll ever be fine again. He supposes that that will depend on him feeling comfortable in his own skin and identifying with his aspect, which, funnily enough, is what causes him to phone the specialist. It’s tiring to hate what you are. He just wants to be happy.

His mother is right; he hasn’t really been happy for a long time. The closest he’s come to accepting his aspect was when he’d first been helped by Joonmyun, with Jinho’s assistance afterwards. That was the last time he felt like somebody cared for him, aspect and all. That was a time he’d enjoyed sex and the _only_ time he’s enjoyed his heat.

He books the appointment for the next day after school, and then wonders if this will be the moment that life begins to look up for him.

\---

Fan Bingbing is gorgeous, with short hair and beautiful eyes, and Chanyeol doesn’t know if it’s the yellow wristband she’s wearing but he’s completely not attracted to her. He thinks she could sit there naked and he’d feel nothing for her. It’s probably a bonus, because it means he can actually pay attention to her instead of staring at her cleavage.

“Is this like a counselling session?” he asks. “Do I just talk to you?”

She smiles at him. “That will be a good place to start. Tell me about yourself. How did you gain your aspect?”

Much of the story spills out of him; how he’d never liked omegas and how becoming one was a curse. He glosses around the implication of him sleeping with lots of omegas, but leaves enough of it for her to understand what’s been going on with him.

“Umma said that I haven’t been happy since I found out what I am,” Chanyeol finishes softly. “I don’t want to hate myself.”

She looks at him for a moment and then nods her head. “We have a free support group that meets every week for omegas who don’t feel like or don’t want to be omegas,” she says. “You’ll be able to talk with them and share experiences that may help others. It’s a closed group and you will be expected to not share anything you hear in the group with anyone outside it. I think that it will do you good.”

“Okay,” Chanyeol says. Maybe it would be good to share with other people aside from Jinho—Jinho who he’s been avoiding for some time now. He _doesn’t_ really share with Jinho. “Is it just like a…an ‘I’m Chanyeol and I’m an omega’ thing?” It’s out before he can think about what he’s saying, and it hangs in the air for a second. His eyes are wide with shock. “That’s the first time I’ve ever said that,” he whispers.

Bingbing nods again. “It will definitely be good for you,” she confirms. “We meet Wednesday evenings at the local community centre, from eight until ten. Will you be able to make it tonight?”

Chanyeol nods. “I’ll get Umma to give me a lift,” he says. Somehow, he thinks she might want to be involved with this. It was her suggestion to see the specialist, after all.

“Brilliant! I look forward to seeing you,” she says. Chanyeol recognises this as a dismissal and he bows before heading back to his mother’s car.

She’s understandably excited. “Oh, baby,” she says, “I knew this would be good for you.”

Chanyeol hopes she’s right.

\---

Chanyeol had wanted to be early, so he wouldn’t stand out, but unfortunately they get into a traffic jam. They arrive ten minutes after the group has begun.

He shifts nervously in the doorway as twenty or so people of varying ages—the youngest looking about sixteen and the oldest probably in their twenties—look up at him from their circle of chairs, some turning around in their seats to look. There are mostly girls, but there are ten or so guys, varying from round-faced, short and cute-as-a-button omega types to taller, handsome guys nobody would accuse of being an omega.

He realises, in that moment, that he’s not alone. They must have it as hard as he has.

“Oh my God!” a girl shouts. She’s kneeling backwards on her chair and one hand points at him somewhat rudely. “What are _you_ doing here, Oppa?”

It takes Chanyeol a moment to place her, with her long brown hair and large, round eyes. She’s Lee Mijoo, one of the betas he’d slept with in his desperation to prove he’s still interested in girls. Apparently she’s _not_ a beta. He raises an eyebrow at her.

“I mean, I thought you’re a…! You’re a…you’re an omega?” she asks slowly, seeing his wristband. “You lied to me?”

“You can talk,” Chanyeol points out, and she blushes, sinking down in her seat.

“At least we both lied,” she mutters.

“Now-now, everyone,” Fan Bingbing says from her point in the circle. “Let’s not accuse each other of anything. You’re all here for the same reason.”

Mijoo nods. “Oppa, come and sit next to me,” she says, waving him over.

He grabs a chair and goes to sit down in the circle. He can notice several of the group paying him close attention and he looks down at his hands. He’s pretty sure that some of them will have gone to his school and are aware of his reputation. It’s nice to know that they can’t say anything.

They all introduce themselves to Chanyeol. He only catches a few of the names, but he recognises Park Sooyoung and Lee Soojung from his class. Sooyoung is bright and bubbly and Soojung is quiet and somewhat serious and reserved, and he’d never have thought either of them were omegas. They would never have thought he was one either.

Sitting in the room with them, hearing their stories—one boy, Park Kyung he thinks, is in love with his homophobic, straight, omega-hating best friend, and hates himself for not being able to stop even when his relationship with his friend just makes him upset (“He doesn’t know I’m an omega,” Kyung says. “It would make him feel sick. I can’t—I _can’t_.” It makes Chanyeol feel like he’s going to throw up, because he used to be just as bad.)—makes Chanyeol begin to realise just how far stereotypes have permeated society. He’s always thought that the alpha and omega aspects just suit one type of person, and everyone who doesn’t fit the mould is a beta. But that’s clearly not the case, looking at all these omegas. Even the cute boys, the ones he’d easily peg as omegas if he’d seen them walking down the street, don’t entirely fit into the mould. One of them, Lee Hyunwoo, is open about being an omega because there’s nothing else he can do—society won’t believe him to be anything else. He’s brave as he tells the group some of the things that people do to him because of it. Tears well up in Chanyeol’s eyes, and his stomach lurches for a second time.

“I thought it wasn’t allowed,” Chanyeol says softly, once he thinks he’s not going to cry. He’s not the only one who looks on the verge of breaking down. Mijoo is openly crying, as is the girl on the other side of her—Son Seungwan, Chanyeol thinks. He rubs Mijoo’s shoulder, trying to be comforting. “To—to approach omegas like that. I thought it always had to be the omega’s decision.”

Hyunwoo shakes his head. He looks better composed, but Chanyeol thinks that might be because he’s had to live with it. He must be awfully strong and brave to live through it and then to admit it to the group—presumably for the first time, because they don’t seem like they’ve heard it before. Chanyeol wonders why. “My school doesn’t have that rule,” Hyunwoo says. “If an omega is nearing heat…‘alphas just can’t help themselves’,” he quotes, his breath hitching.

There are no shortage of people who obviously want to give him a hug, but Chanyeol’s the first one to get there; his long legs giving him the advantage. He wraps his arms around Hyunwoo and shuts his eyes as Hyunwoo freezes for a second before sinking into his hold.

Chanyeol is reluctant to go back to his seat but Hyunwoo pushes him to go. He whispers that he can take care of himself; he doesn’t need to be protected like a baby. It only makes it worse.

Hyunwoo has one year left of school. Chanyeol can’t imagine going through that for a whole year, and wonders if it is possible for Hyunwoo to move schools for his final year, move to one with better rules about omegas.

Eventually, Chanyeol has to tell his own story. He suddenly feels uncomfortable telling it, because his reasons for lying to everyone suddenly seem shallow and unimportant compared to what some of them go through.

“I…I was always the strong one, the one who took care of others, in my friendship group,” he says. “Everyone always thought I was going to be an alpha. When I spoke, people listened. I think I…I got caught up in it. I believed it. I believed that I was _better_. I believed I had a _right_ to do and say things that…that _hurt_ people.” His words are shaky as he forces them out. It’s a better speech than the one he’d given Fan Bingbing, regardless. “I was awful to omegas. I’m…I’m sorry if I ever said anything that upset you, those of you I went or go to school with.” He lets his eyes linger on Sooyoung, Soojung and Mijoo carefully as he says so. He swallows. “I…when I got my aspect, I thought it was going to confirm what I’d always thought about myself, but it didn’t. It was the complete opposite, and I hated it and hated myself for not being the way I was _supposed_ to be. Very few people know I’m an…an omega—” It’s still hard to say it—after all, it’s only the second time he’s said it aloud. And yet there was a point in time when he’d _never_ have felt comfortable saying it. Having people to talk to makes it easier. “—because I couldn’t bear to tell anyone that I’m what I’ve hated for so long. I thought that my friends would mock me and tell me it was what I deserved if I told them. That’s _exactly_ what my sister did when she found out.” Mijoo reaches out and places her hand on his knee, a comforting warmth that reminds him of Jinho. Chanyeol comes to the conclusion that he _misses_ Jinho. “For so long I’ve hated myself. I was another version of your best friend,” he says to Kyung, “and one of the guys who would have preyed on you,” he says to Hyunwoo. “I was _awful_ ,” he repeats. “Becoming aware of how toxic I was and changing myself has been hard, but I think I’ve changed. I’m still not one hundred per cent comfortable with myself and who I am, but it’s getting better.” It’s actually a surprise to say it, but he realises that it’s true. It’s been a long time since he’s thought of himself as an alpha.

“If you told your friends now,” Kyung says quietly, “do you think they’d accept you?”

Chanyeol has to think about it. “It’s been over a year since I got my aspect,” he says. “I…I’m not sure.” And yet—and yet he _is_ sure. None of them turned away from Jongdae when he revealed that he’s an omega. They’re not awful people—in fact it probably made them grow closer as Chanyeol, still a child on the football team, had drifted away from them.

He thinks they might even understand.

In fact, he’d be surprised if Baekhyun would have done anything except laugh for a few minutes and then coo over him—he’d probably call him a giant baby omega, or something equally twee. Jongdae would have enjoyed the ability to bond with someone else who went through the same thing he goes through every month. As for Zitao, Jongdae being less isolated in their friendship group would have made him happier and more relieved. Chanyeol knows that Zitao worries a lot about his mate and his insecurities. Jongdae isn’t always as happy as he looks.

Chanyeol feels his tears well up once more. “Yes,” he says. “I think they would.” 

“I think you should tell them,” Mijoo says quietly. “Tell them for all of us who can’t—all of us who’d be hated by our friends for being this way.” She links her fingers with his. Chanyeol looks at their conjoined hands, remembering the last time someone held his hand like this.

“Okay,” he promises. “I will.”

\---

Chanyeol is excited when he wakes up the next day—excited to finally stop lying to the people who mean the most to him.

After he gets dressed, he slides the blue wristband over his wrist and under his jumper sleeve. For the first time, it feels comfortable. It feels _right_.

“I need to talk to you guys,” he says to his friends at school, shuffling in his shoes. “Can we talk after lunch? Can you bring Zitao?”

Jongdae nods with a confused look on his face, and Baekhyun smiles.

Jinho, sitting across from Jongdae, looks at him with wide, surprised eyes. It’s the first time Chanyeol’s met his eyes since he’d got cross at the suggestion of them dating and left the group. Jinho looks good. Chanyeol remembers the feeling of his mouth against his and blushes, looking away hastily. He doesn’t understand why he misses _that_ , too.

“Sure,” Baekhyun says. “But now I’m going to be distracted all morning.”

“D-don’t be,” Chanyeol says, stammering slightly. Baekhyun raises an eyebrow at him. “Really. It’s not…it’s not.” He lets the end of the sentence lie empty. He can’t think of the right word.

“I don’t remember the last time I heard you stammer,” Baekhyun says. “It must be something important to make you lose your cool. Have you found your mate?” He leers at Chanyeol, who shakes his head so quickly it hurts.

“No! No,” he says, trying not to look over at Jinho, who is grinning now, presumably because he realises what’s going on.

“Oh, look what we have here,” Baekhyun says. He has eyesight like a hawk. “Do you know what’s going on, Jinho? Are you going along to find out?”

“Oh no,” Jinho says airily. “I’m just intrigued.” He turns to look at Chanyeol. “Anyway, it’s up to Chanyeol,” he adds.

Chanyeol doesn’t know if Jinho will be of help if the rest of them do get cross with him. After all, he has a right to be cross as well. But he nods anyway. “Yeah, you can come,” he says.

Jinho grins again. “Awesome,” he says. “I look forward to it. I know it’s going to be worth it.”

Chanyeol flushes.

\---

The five of them sit in an empty classroom after they’ve eaten their lunch. Chanyeol locks the door so that nobody else can get in, rolls down the blinds so that nobody can watch his lips move, and turns his chair to face the other four.

“This seems remarkably much for something you said wasn’t serious,” Jongdae says.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t serious,” Chanyeol says. “I just said it wasn’t…” He shrugs. “It’s just…something I should have told you a long time ago. I’ve been too afraid.”

Zitao and Jongdae furrow their brows, but Baekhyun doesn’t look confused, just intrigued. Jinho is grinning openly. Chanyeol hopes he’ll stop, because it’s a little off-putting.

“I…” Chanyeol begins, and then swallows. “I haven’t been entirely truthful with you. I need you to understand that I never meant it to be like this and I never wanted to lie to you like this.”

As he speaks, he can see Zitao and Baekhyun’s expressions even out, whilst Jongdae’s brow furrows even further. Chanyeol doesn’t really understand what that means.

“Yes?” Jongdae prompts softly. “What is it?”

“I’m…not actually a beta,” Chanyeol manages to get out.

“ _Yes_!” Baekhyun explodes, punching the air with both fists, bringing his legs up as well. “I win! Pay up, bitches,” he says, hands out on either side of him expectantly.

Jinho and Zitao make faces and rummage through their pockets for their wallets. Jinho dumps a handful of thousand-won notes into Baekhyun’s hand and says, “As delighted as I am that you came clean, I wish you’d waited, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol blinks at them in confusion.

“We had a bet,” Baekhyun says cheerfully. “I said you’d tell us in the final couple of months, Jinho said you’d tell us on the last day, and Zitao thought you’d tell us once school was over.”

Chanyeol suddenly feels even more confused. “You knew?” he asks, and then turns to Jinho.

“Hey,” Jinho says, raising his hands before him in a peace-making gesture. “I don’t tell people’s secrets. They already knew.”

“I don’t know,” Jongdae says. “I don’t know what’s going on. What are you?”

“Jongdae, you’re adorable,” Jinho and Baekhyun chorus.

Zitao wraps his arm around Jongdae and pulls him close into his side. “Chanyeol-hyung’s an omega, like you,” Zitao tells him softly.

It takes a second for it to sink in, and then Jongdae rips out of Zitao’s grasp and into a standing position, eyes wide and fists clenched. “You’re a _what_?” he asks. He shakes his head. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought we were best friends.” Tears well up in his eyes. Chanyeol feels intimidated under his gaze, and he pulls his knees to his chest, making him smaller in a way that Jongdae should know well. Jongdae shakes his head in disgust and turns to Zitao. “Why didn’t _you_ tell me?”

“I thought you knew,” Zitao says. “I thought it was obvious that he was an omega in denial. You were the one who pointed out that Chanyeol misses the third Monday of every month. His heat is like clockwork, just like yours.”

“I thought he was helping other omegas,” Jongdae says.

Chanyeol shakes his head. “Not then,” he whispered.

“I…I don’t know what to think,” Jongdae says. “I thought you would have told me, but I guess you didn’t trust me enough.”

Chanyeol jerks his head up to protest, but Jongdae storms off, unlocking the door and slamming it behind him, causing the windows to rattle. A second later, Zitao follows him. Once upon a time that was Chanyeol’s job.

Chanyeol curls up even closer in on himself.

“Shh,” he hears, and a familiar hand settles on his shoulder, rubbing through his jumper. “It’ll be okay; he’ll come around. He’s just upset.”

Chanyeol leans into Jinho’s hold and wishes that he could kiss him. It worked before to calm him down, but Baekhyun’s right there. He doesn’t want Baekhyun to know that he’s not as straight as he’s always made out to be.

“You guys have totally had sex,” Baekhyun’s voice says, mirth obvious in his voice. Chanyeol jerks in surprise, trying to pull out of Jinho’s grasp, who keeps him there, running his fingers through Chanyeol’s hair soothingly. “I _knew_ it! I knew you weren’t as straight as you always claimed to be.”

“You’re just jealous,” Jinho says calmly. “You can always ask, you know.”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “I have no interest in stealing your man,” he says. “But if he finds himself alone during a heat and needing help, I’m sure I could find the time to expend a favour. Just the once of course. You wouldn’t be the first adorable baby to need my help.”

Chanyeol stares at him for a moment, touched by the offer but also recognising something in it that he doesn’t understand. And then it hits him. “You and Jongdae?!” he asks, wide eyes.

“Well it’s not like _you_ could have helped him,” Baekhyun says, shrugging his shoulders. “I was the next best thing.”

Chanyeol keeps staring as Baekhyun stands and leaves, not entirely understanding the implications. “What did he mean by that?” he asks Jinho, frowning.

“Who knows,” Jinho says. “Anyway, I’m proud of you, even if I did lose money.” And then he’s kissing Chanyeol softly and Chanyeol feels warm and loved and protected and _happy_.

\---

Despite his attempts at secrecy, it gets out—that Chanyeol’s actually an omega—as Chanyeol had always known it might. But, now he’s told his friends, he’s actually okay with it. He’s in his final month of schooling and it doesn’t really matter what most of these people think—the names they call him, the insults they throw him. He’s heard worse from the football team. Most of them aren’t going to see him again once school is over. It only matters that his friends like him.

It takes Jongdae a few days to come to terms with it, and then he smacks Chanyeol hard, knees him in the balls for good measure, and asks him if he enjoys being fucked. It’s a weird lead into a somewhat uncomfortable conversation, but, blushing, Chanyeol tells the truth—he _does_ enjoy it (mostly)—and after Jongdae laughs (not meanly), that seems to repair their friendship.

“I never meant to keep it from you, too,” Chanyeol says, once Jongdae’s not going to threaten him with bodily harm any longer. “I was just so scared. I never wanted _anyone_ to know.”

“Everyone except for me knew,” Jongdae points out.

“Well, yeah,” Chanyeol agrees, “but I never told them.”

Jongdae sighs, then he smiles. “It’s kind of nice that both of us are omegas,” he says. “We’ve been so close for so long, and then we were both late with getting our aspects, and they’re the same. I wonder if our mates will be similar too. I hope you get someone who you love as much as I love Zitao.” His smile is warm and loving and Chanyeol can’t understand what he’s feeling.

\---

He goes back to the support group the following week. Everyone has heard what happened at Chanyeol’s school from those who go there, and are supportive.

“It sucks that everyone was rude,” Kyung says, “but you’re still so lucky your friends support you.”

Chanyeol nods with a smile, because he’s starting to realise that he’s far more privileged than the rest of this group of omegas, or at least the young ones in school. The older ones are in university and come to the group because they don’t enjoy being omegas, not because they don’t identify as them. Chanyeol is looking forward to university, because that’s where he can start anew. If he wants to introduce himself as an omega from day one, he can. He just has to wait until the term starts before his life might be able to change.

Most of the group talks during the meeting, but Hyunwoo is quiet. He’s sitting a couple of seats over from Chanyeol, who is squished between Kyung and a good-looking guy in a sleeveless shirt showing his tattoos, who had introduced himself as Lee Minhyuk. Hyunwoo doesn’t speak for the whole meeting, just keeping his head down. From the lack of attention the others are giving him, Chanyeol wonders if this is usual for him. It’s somewhat worrying.

There’s the strangest smell in the room that Chanyeol doesn’t understand—it hadn’t been there the first time he’d been there. It smells a little like school does, but not _quite_ the same. Chanyeol finds it distracting and a little intoxicating.

When the meeting is finished, Chanyeol stands, somewhat dazed from the smell. Hyunwoo reaches out to grab him before he leaves. They wait for everyone to go, standing in the hallway, before Hyunwoo speaks. “It’s…it’s my heat on Friday,” he says. “Would you help me?”

The way he holds himself isn’t at all like the brave boy Chanyeol had first met, and makes him look far younger than his seventeen years. That’s why Chanyeol steps forward to give Hyunwoo a hug. “Of course,” Chanyeol says, into Hyunwoo’s shoulder. The smell is much stronger here. It takes Chanyeol another moment to work out that it’s the smell of an omega who doesn’t take suppressants, as his heat nears. Chanyeol’s smelt omegas in heat before, but he’s pretty sure most of them were on suppressants. The school often smells strongly of omegas. Chanyeol wonders if the meeting room smells of omegas in heat often, or if it’s a rare occurrence. Nobody else had seemed bothered by it. “Name a place and time and I’ll be there, even if I have to miss school for it.”

“I shouldn’t miss school,” Hyunwoo says, but then he steels himself. “But I want…I want to take control, for once.”

“Good for you,” Chanyeol says. “That school isn’t good for you.”

“I know,” Hyunwoo says, “but my parents can’t work out how to transfer me.”

Chanyeol makes a mental note in that minute to research school transfers.

Hyunwoo doesn’t give him the name of a hotel, but instead gives his house number. “I’m trusting you,” he says. He’s trying to joke, but his voice comes out shaky and unsure.

“Don’t worry,” Chanyeol says. “I’ll look after you.”

And, true to his word, he does. He arrives early at Hyunwoo’s house on Friday when he should really be in class and helps work him through several orgasms—including a couple of attempts at blowjobs that Chanyeol really thinks he needs to practise at—before even beginning to stretch him; careful not to scare or upset him. Chanyeol wants to be as gentle as possible to prove that not everyone is bad and just wants to use him.

He makes a point of asking what Hyunwoo wants; there’s no point in just doing what Chanyeol wants to do if Hyunwoo doesn’t enjoy it. He also wants Hyunwoo to feel in control, like he’d asked. He gets to make the decisions.

Hyunwoo’s only experience of sex is on his knees, hard and fast, and with less focus on him than his partner. “Even though I’m the one in heat, they don’t always care,” he says. Because of this, he asks Chanyeol if they can do it with Hyunwoo on his back. Chanyeol is only happy to oblige.

Hyunwoo leans up to kiss him at one point, all lips and tongue and teeth, and Chanyeol has the sudden realisation that in his limited experience he’s far preferred kissing boys to girls. Maybe it was a sign.

Hyunwoo finds reprieve in time for dinner and invites Chanyeol down for it.

Chanyeol feels extremely uncomfortable when he realises that Hyunwoo’s mother is there, and was presumably there for at least part of his time with Hyunwoo.

“Who’s this?” Hyunwoo’s mother asks in a whisper, though not quietly enough for Chanyeol to not be able to hear. “I don’t recognise him.”

“Um,” Hyunwoo says. “This is Chanyeol-hyung. He’s from the group.”

“He’s not an alpha?” she asks, looking surprised.

Chanyeol shakes his head. “I’m an omega,” he says. It’s amazing how easy it becomes to say, the more he says it.

“He’s not like those alphas, Umma,” Hyunwoo says.

She nods once. “If you’re sure,” she says, and sets out an extra bowl and chopsticks for Chanyeol.

Chanyeol eats with one knee trembling under the table, somewhat afraid that she’s going to kick him out of the house at any point. Even so, he doesn’t think he’d blame her if she did.

\---

Chanyeol stays the full two and a half days until Hyunwoo’s heat ends.

“Thank you,” Hyunwoo says when it ends, curled up in bed against Chanyeol’s side. It all feels wonderfully romantic. “Nobody’s ever done this for me before.”

“It was the least I could do,” Chanyeol says. “There’s no way I wanted you to spend it with someone from school.”

“They’ve been trying to grab me for days,” Hyunwoo admits. “They can smell when you’re going into heat.”

“That’s why I take suppressants,” Chanyeol admits. “You should get some. That way, when you’re in your final year people won’t be able to tell.”

Hyunwoo nods his head. Chanyeol wonders why nobody has ever told him he can take suppressants. Did his doctor just presume he’d be fine, unlike Chanyeol?

They stay curled up for a few moments in silence, Chanyeol pondering their different lives, when Hyunwoo says, “I’m scared to get a mate…why can’t omegas mate together?”

After Jihyun and Ailee, Chanyeol had researched mating, just to make sure that he wouldn’t be stuck with someone for the rest of his life whose knots physically hurt him. He’d discovered that mating was a lot different to what he’d thought; he’d always thought that you have sex and eventually one partner clicks with you. There’s an element of that, but there are more features to gaining a mate than he’d have thought of. Each person even has multiple potential mates they might meet over the course of their lives.

“You’ll be fine,” he says. “The body is far cleverer than you think. If you don’t enjoy the experience with that partner or you don’t want to be having it, you won’t mate, no matter how compatible you are. Both partners need to be _aware_ of what’s happening, willing, enjoying it, _and_ sexually and even genetically compatible. Hopefully, that’ll stop you from mating with someone who’s using you.”

“What if I want it and I’m enjoying it but they’re still using me, and then we mate?”

Chanyeol can only say that he hopes they would grow to love Hyunwoo. “How could they not?”

Hyunwoo just grins at him.

\---

Chanyeol does his best to get through his last month of school without any serious issues arising. He keeps his head down and works—only sticking his head out in order to ask the office on how to do a student transfer. When the receptionist raises her eyebrow at him he has to fight not to roll his eyes when he tells her it’s _obviously_ not for him. The transfer method seems far too easy, and he takes the paperwork away for Hyunwoo.

During this final month, Chanyeol has no requests for him to help with heats—not even from other omegas. But clearly the girls ask others.

“Oppa,” Sunyoung says, quietly, one afternoon. It’s cold and they’re sitting in the back of her classroom. Chanyeol hasn’t seen it for a while, but it used to be his old form room. He can’t believe that in less than a month he’ll never see it again. “Oppa.”

“Yes, Sunyoung?” he asks her.

She doesn’t say anything, just thrusts her wrist at him. It takes him a moment to realise that her wristband is white.

“Oh, wow!” he says. “Congratulations.”

Her mate is a university student who used to be a student at their school, a boy called Lee Jinki. They met through their parents and hit it off. “I’m…really happy,” she says, with a warm smile. “I never thought I’d meet my mate so early. I just wanted to…I don’t know, thank you? You’ve helped me so much.”

“It’s no problem,” Chanyeol says sincerely, and he gives her a hug, but inside he just feels jealous. Will he ever find his mate?

\---

After giving Hyunwoo the transfer paperwork—surprising him with how forthright he is—, Chanyeol asks him to help him with his own heat—his final heat before he’s no longer a school student—, because he doesn’t think anyone’s ever asked Hyunwoo to help them before. Hyunwoo’s eyes are wide in surprise, but he agrees immediately.

Hyunwoo is nowhere near shy or quiet when he’s not in heat—in fact, he’s loud in bed, and Chanyeol is grateful that his parents have gone away for the weekend, on his request. He didn’t want to go to a hotel, because that felt too impersonal. He’d also wanted to repay Hyunwoo for letting him into his home; showing that he trusts him just as much.

Chanyeol gives control to him once again, and he’s not disappointed. Despite never doing this before, Hyunwoo has an innate understanding of what feels good and what doesn’t, and he uses this knowledge to get Chanyeol off constantly, whether it’s with his mouth, his fingers or his cock.

By dinnertime, Chanyeol has come more times than he ever remembers coming in one day before, and knows his body isn’t sated in the slightest. For the first time since gaining his aspect, he almost looks _forward_ to the second day.

He isn’t disappointed.

\---

The last week before school ends is quick—almost _too_ quick. The last day is upon Chanyeol quicker than he’d wanted it to come, and then it’s over. He never has to go back to school.

It turns out that all of them, except Zitao, who still has another year of school, are going to the same Arts university, through some kind of entrance exam luck—they’d all got roughly the same grades on their exams and been given places at the same school. This is a relief for Chanyeol; he doesn’t want to lose them. He wouldn’t have wanted to navigate university without them.

Chanyeol’s made the decision to be open about his aspect whilst at university. It was something he’d only had to disclose after he received the acceptance letter. The university has different dorms for claimed and unclaimed omegas; and a separate dorm for those in heat. There is also a separate dorm for those who refuse to disclose their aspect. Once upon a time he would have placed himself there due to sheer stubbornness, but he can’t imagine it being terribly safe. He will feel far safer in a dorm catered for omegas like him.

“I’d say I was proud of you,” Jinho teases, “but I expected it. You even seem to be growing to _enjoy_ being an omega.”

Chanyeol wouldn’t go as far as that, but he finally feels more comfortable in his own skin. For the first time since gaining his aspect, he likes who he is. He just wishes that his other friends in the support group would be able to feel the same.

Kyung, who is the same age as them, finished school at the same time. In the final group session before school ended, Chanyeol had asked him what he was going to do in university about his aspect.

“I think I’ll do it carefully,” Kyung had replied. “Join an omega group, maybe, as a hint. Or just tell him outright that I’m an omega. We’re going to be going to the same university, but maybe he’ll be okay with that. Maybe he’ll be okay with _me_.”

Chanyeol had crossed his fingers for him. He wants Kyung’s friend to realise that omegas aren’t all bad, the way Chanyeol had had to realise it—though, as an alpha, he isn’t going to learn the same lessons as Chanyeol. Maybe the friend could even grow to love Kyung—though that’s probably too much to hope for.

In other news, Jinho had apparently refused to help Joonmyun, like he’d said he would a long time ago, and Joonmyun had nervously asked Kyuhyun to help. Jinho doesn’t know the outcome yet, but Kyuhyun’s blush had seemingly been a sight to behold.

Chanyeol doesn’t think he’ll stop being jealous of everyone and their love lives until he meets his own mate. He just doesn’t know when he’ll meet them.

\---

There are two weeks of holiday before university starts.

He sleeps in the first day, because he can. It’s rather nice, not having anything in particular that needs doing. He enjoys it. It’s been a while since he actually had a _holiday_.

Tuesday night is the start of the drama he and Joonmyun had acted in. Everyone arrives at his house fifteen minutes before it begins, even though Chanyeol isn’t in the first episode.

The drama has been given the name _A Love without Ties_ and is a typical coming-of-age story about a boy called Park Sunho (played by Joonmyun) falling in love with a young girl called Seo Minah. Chanyeol had already known that it’s set in a world where they don’t have aspects, but he hadn’t realised that there would be no ties between the characters at all; they run in separate circles, and are both as intelligent and rich as each other. There’s no real reason that they can’t be together, but also no reason why they _should_ be together, and that’s what’s appealing about it. Chanyeol enjoys watching their love blossom.

He can never have a love without strings. There will always be an element of fate in his love; they’d be _meant_ for each other. That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a happy and loving relationship, or even a spontaneous one. Just that fate would have had a hand in choosing his mate.

The others seem to enjoy the drama as well, even though they laugh through the first episode, teasing Chanyeol for being in a rom-com.

“I’m just a student,” Chanyeol points out. “I don’t have a love line of my own. You’ll see.”

They watch the next three episodes before university starts, and Chanyeol is proven wrong when Baekhyun casually says that Joonmyun and Chanyeol have more chemistry together in their scenes than Joonmyun has with the lead actress.

“I think it’d be a better drama,” Baekhyun jokes. “There’d probably be more electricity if you kissed Joonmyun.”

Chanyeol can’t stop his cheeks from heating up. “Please stop talking about this,” he says.

“The more you blush, the more I wonder if you _have_ kissed Joonmyun,” Baekhyun says airily.

Chanyeol just blushes harder.

“Ooh!” Baekhyun says wickedly, and he presses the live pause button on the TV remote, stopping Joonmyun as he reaches out his hand to touch Chanyeol’s shoulder. Chanyeol remembers how warm his fingers had been even through his clothes. “You _must_ tell us.”

“Right now?” Chanyeol asks, looking at Jinho with desperate eyes, as if Jinho can help.

Jinho just lifts his hands in apology. “Hey now, you know I’m not going to talk about you,” he says apologetically. “Leave me out of it.”

Chanyeol sighs. “It was…he only kissed me a couple of times,” he murmurs. “It was nothing really. Just…you know, help.”

Jongdae’s eyes widen. “So you and Jinho, you and Joonmyun? How many guys have you even been with?”

Chanyeol doesn’t want to talk about this, but _especially_ not with Jongdae. He frowns. “I don’t ask you how many guys _you’ve_ slept with,” he points out, trying not to snap and failing.

Jongdae winces. From next to him, Zitao glowers, pulling him closer into him. “That was uncalled for,” he says.

Chanyeol does snap this time. “No, it wasn’t. It’s none of your business if I’ve slept with one guy or a hundred.”

“Guys,” Jinho says, leaning towards them with a frown on his face. “Let’s just watch the drama, okay?” He places his hand on Chanyeol’s thigh, rubbing at his inseam in that comforting way he does everything.

Chanyeol hadn’t realised that he had leant forwards at the question. He takes a deep breath and nods, settling back next to Jinho. Baekhyun, with a strange expression on his face, presses play, and they watch the rest of the episode in silence, just the sound of their breathing to keep them company.

Zitao and Jongdae apologise to Chanyeol before they leave. “It was inappropriate of me,” Jongdae admits. “I’m sorry.”

Chanyeol tells them not to worry about it, but inwardly hopes they take the hint. It’s not a topic he’s comfortable with—or at least not _yet_.

\---

Chanyeol doesn’t usually pay attention to celebrity gossip, but on the Friday before university, when Chanyeol is packing everything he needs to live away in dorms for the first time in his life, Korea’s most famous actor reveals himself to be an omega.

His name is Choi Siwon and although he’s only six years older than Chanyeol he has been in more films than Chanyeol can contemplate, usually playing a strong, manly action man. The fact that he’s an omega is amazing to Chanyeol and everyone he knows. He gets a text from Kyung that’s just full of exclamation marks. Nobody had been expecting that from Siwon.

Siwon drops a second bombshell the next day; his wife and mate, Chinese supermodel Liu Wen, is an alpha.

The news is _everywhere_ within minutes of his announcements.

And the most amazing thing happens. After the initial surprise, people begin to _accept_ it. Most of the public doesn’t boycott Siwon’s films, or start ignoring his shows. He actually gains _more_ fans. And people—normal people—start being more open about their aspects—within minutes of his confessions there are personal confessions online, over social media. Other men admitting to being omegas, rather than alphas. It’s like by having that famous role model, omegas can finally start being themselves, instead of hiding.

Celebrities really can do some good, with their power.

\---

Chanyeol has Saturday until Monday night to move into his dorms at university, ready for Freshers’ Week to begin. Wanting to stay at home for as long as possible, he has his parents drive him up to university for Monday.

His university is huge; multiple sprawling campuses connected by long and leafy passages through the trees. Each campus has its own lake, grassy areas, lecture halls and dorm buildings. The tour-guide, a young and bouncy girl with pink hair, indicates each dorm as they get to it. In total there are six dorms.

The first is for mated pairs or individual students, with an empty section at the back for those newly mated whilst at university. These can be occupied at any point during the years at university. It doesn’t matter that there are multiple alphas and omegas in this building, the tour-guide explains, because the pheromones of someone mated won’t be noticed by anyone other than their mate. This is information that Chanyeol had pieced together himself but never outright been told by anyone. He remembers looking at Fan Bingbing and feeling nothing for her, and, even though she’s a beta, supposes that this must be why.

There are also dorms for unmated alphas, betas and omegas, and a dorm for those who don’t want to announce their aspect. Although he’s going to a different university, Chanyeol knows that Kyung has selected this dorm. Chanyeol wonders if, after Siwon’s confession, Kyung will feel more comfortable telling his friend about himself.

A final dorm is for use by those in heat, to keep them out of the omega or alpha dorms in their time of need, protecting other omegas from attack. These dorms can be accessed by an omega as soon as their heat begins, and allow betas in as well. They can only be accessed by an alpha who is in the company of a sober and consenting omega in heat. It is an offence to let an alpha in if one is not in heat, to help another unknowing omega. This action can be punishable by immediate expulsion.

Chanyeol has placed himself in the omegas dorm, and discovers that his room is right next to Jinho’s, which he finds comforting. All students have a room to themselves rather than one shared with another student, for their privacy, safety, and security. All dorms are co-ed, but one side of the corridor is for girls and the other for boys.

The rooms are quite small and cosy; clean white walls and minimal furniture. Chanyeol’s room has a bed, a desk and chair, a wardrobe and a bedside table. Connecting his and Jinho’s rooms is a bathroom, which they can access without leaving their rooms and entering the corridor. Chanyeol is grateful that he doesn’t share his bathroom with someone he doesn’t know, because it might be awkward if he needed to go and walked in on them. At least with Jinho he doesn’t have to worry.

The first week of university is spent exploring, learning the layout of the school. Chanyeol is so busy that he doesn’t even go to his meeting on Wednesday. He misses everyone, but only briefly. He doesn’t have much time to waste.

Nearing the end of the week is a big fair for the new students (Freshers) to meet each other and join clubs. Chanyeol walks around with Baekhyun, Jongdae and Jinho, looking to see what interests him.

Chanyeol has chosen to do a joint course of Acting and Music Composition—although he’s never been that interested in composing before, his friends are very interested in singing, and it would be very nice if they sang his songs. He decides to join the Drama Society, and then gets attracted by the bright sign for the Boxing Club. He joins a third and final club with Baekhyun; the Beta & Omega Martial Arts Society. The omega on table duty peers at Chanyeol’s wristband for an overly long time before handing him the sign-up sheet, which Chanyeol frowns at.

“Sorry,” the boy says, noticing. “We sometimes get alpha creeps who try to sign up to get access to omegas. You can’t be too careful.”

The others join either the Music Club or the campus choir, neither Jongdae nor Jinho being interested in sports. Baekhyun, because he can, joins both. He jokes that it’s to keep an eye on them, but as they’re all taking Music Performance, that isn’t necessary.

Also at the end of the week is Chanyeol’s heat.

Due to not knowing anyone at university yet, Chanyeol approaches Jinho first, only to find out that Jinho’s busy.

Chanyeol wonders if this means he’ll be left to his own devices again, and then remembers Baekhyun’s offer. He wonders how serious it was, and then decides to test it. He can always brush it off as curiosity if Baekhyun says it was just a joke.

Baekhyun grins warmly when Chanyeol casually mentions the topic of heats with him, over Western breakfast on Friday, when thankfully Chanyeol’s heat hasn’t yet begun.

“Your boy toy not up for it?” Baekhyun teases.

Chanyeol frowns, and picks at his pancakes.

“Come on, Yeol,” Baekhyun continues. “You guys are cute.”

Chanyeol just sighs.

“I’m free,” Baekhyun says. “If you needed my help. Like I said, just the once, but I’m definitely okay with it. What time do you think it’ll start?”

Chanyeol makes a face. “Today, I think,” he says. “Lunchtime? It’s usually about lunchtime.”

“Then why don’t we test out the dorms for omegas after breakfast?” Baekhyun suggests, with a wicked smile. “You can get acquainted with them—you’re going to see a lot of them over the next three years.” He winks. Chanyeol grimaces, but nods.

The heat dorm is at the back, behind the dorm for single omegas. Chanyeol has to show his wristband and sign himself in, grateful that he isn’t already in heat. He doesn’t think he’d have the patience or the will to sign the paper if he was already showing signs. Baekhyun also has to sign in, ticking a box that says he’s a beta and he understands the rules. Then they’re given a room key and waved in.

Their room is on the second floor. From walking through the halls, Chanyeol thinks that the dorm isn’t too dissimilar to his own dorm, just a bit cleaner and with thicker walls. Each room is small, just containing a double bed, with its own en suite bathroom. Chanyeol supposes it would be a bad idea to have communal bathrooms to use when everyone is on heat. They’d always be occupied.

They explore the inside of the dorms before settling into their assigned room. The rooms are all soundproof but the doors aren’t. In the corridor, Chanyeol has the horrifying realisation that he can hear _everything_ , from beds creaking to loud moans and screams to be touched. Even though Chanyeol is aware he can probably get quite loud himself, hearing other omegas in the throes of passion has his cheeks heating up.

Baekhyun, however, takes it all in his stride, as he takes everything. Chanyeol doesn’t think Baekhyun’s ever been that surprised or shocked by anything in his life.

They head back to their assigned room soon after, Chanyeol too embarrassed to stay out much longer. Baekhyun settles on the bed, making himself comfortable. Chanyeol is nervous as he settles beside him, suddenly realising that this is a step in their friendship that he’d never have considered before. It’s only because he’s desperate.

He’d say he isn’t usually in the habit of sleeping with friends, but Joonmyun and Hyunwoo proved that point false, so he won’t. But Baekhyun isn’t really the sort of person one wants to be vulnerable around. He’s a good friend, but he _is_ Baekhyun. He can’t help himself.

They’re in the middle of a conversation about what they expect their first weeks to be like when Chanyeol feels the tell-tale prickle of heat and wetness seep through his jeans. He suddenly wishes he’d taken his clothing off, already dreading the walk back home once his heat’s over. Cheeks hot with embarrassment, he stands and wrestles with his belt buckle and the button on his jeans, yanking his trousers down and off his legs. His underpants are sodden, so he kicks those off as well, and then, almost as an afterthought, tugs his t-shirt off. Standing there in the room, he feels very exposed.

“I knew you were an omega but for some reason my brain didn’t properly process it,” Baekhyun says from behind him. “It’s nice to have irrefutable evidence.”

Chanyeol swallows, shuts his eyes for a second, and turns back to face Baekhyun, who rakes his eyes up and down his body eagerly, though with no sign of hunger. Chanyeol hadn’t been expecting Baekhyun to be attracted to him, but it’s a different thing entirely to see it. It’ll do him no good to have help that can’t get hard.

“Okay,” Baekhyun says. “Get yourself off for me.”

Chanyeol nods, not wanting to waste time, and knowing it’s a good way to turn someone on. He settles on the bed and wraps his hand round his cock, shutting his eyes in bliss as he gets to relieve some of the tension and stress in his body. He doesn’t get off nearly enough, he thinks, as he works his way up to his first orgasm of his heat, coming over his stomach quietly.

When he opens his eyes, Baekhyun is rubbing himself through his clothes, definitely looking a bit more prepared for this than before.

Chanyeol works himself through another orgasm before Baekhyun’s hard and ready.

Chanyeol hasn’t been acquainted with many dicks, but Baekhyun’s is definitely the longest. It reminds Chanyeol of one of Baekhyun’s long, piano-playing fingers, and now Chanyeol doesn’t think he’s ever going to be able to look at Baekhyun’s hands without thinking of his dick.

Baekhyun is surprisingly a good sexual partner. He lets Chanyeol position himself on his knees so he can’t see Baekhyun, and he thrusts deeply and at a good, quick pace. He fucks Chanyeol through several orgasms before he has his first of the day. Baekhyun comes quietly, which is a surprise for someone as vocal as he is. Chanyeol has, at more than one point, wondered if Baekhyun sings during sex.

When it comes to food, Baekhyun gives himself a quick spray of some strong-smelling deodorant that comes with the room and runs to get them some chicken from the cafeteria, leaving Chanyeol on his own for a little bit.

Chanyeol swallows, feeling empty and open and needing something to fill himself with. He ends up with three fingers pressed inside himself, thrusting them until he comes over the bed, and he pulls his fingers out of himself just as Baekhyun opens the door and lets himself in. Chanyeol may have let his friend put his cock inside him, but he doesn’t think Baekhyun’s ready to know that sometimes he fingers himself as well.

The weekend passes much the same way. Baekhyun stays for the whole thing, which is good of him. Chanyeol hadn’t really expected him to stay for so long, especially sleeping in the same bed as him overnight. But Baekhyun does.

Chanyeol finds himself enjoying the whole experience and he relaxes a bit more on the second day, allowing Baekhyun to fuck him when he’s on his back. When it’s over and his body cools down, he takes a shower and shuts his eyes, soothing his body after two full days of strenuous activity.

Even though he enjoyed it he appreciates that this is just a one-time thing. He’ll have to find someone else for next time, which is a challenge he will do his best to enjoy.

After all, there’s a whole university of boys he hasn’t met yet.

\---

University and school are different, and not just because of the campus layout.

Lectures aren’t the same as classes had been, and not just because some of them have far more of them packed into a lecture hall than Chanyeol would have guessed. Sometimes all the music courses get together, so Chanyeol finds himself squished between Jinho and Jongdae, Baekhyun perched on the end of the row. The same happens for Acting, which has joint lectures with Practical Theatre, History of Theatre, and sometimes even the lighting- and makeup-artists.

But sometimes the seminars are tiny, and Chanyeol’s friends are off in their own classes. Chanyeol sticks to Kim Jiwon, a friendly but shy girl from the omega support group, and together they make friends within their subject. There’s Kim Myungsoo, another omega, Min Hangroo, a beta with definite alpha tendencies, and glamorous yet baby-faced Ahn Sohee, who hasn’t announced her aspect and keeps her wrists bare of all jewellery except for a thin gold bracelet. There are plenty of alphas in the class, like Cha Sunwoo and Cousin Amber, who, together, are loud and good fun and, in the case of Sunwoo, seem perfectly pleasant, yet also somehow intimidate Chanyeol—even though he’d basically grown up with Amber, it’s still weird, because that was mostly when they’d thought he was an alpha. Once, he’d wanted to _be_ them. He can’t go back to that.

There are also the clubs. Boxing is his favourite. There’s just something nice about throwing his fist into a swinging punching bag for thirty minutes twice a week. It’s relaxing, and helps Chanyeol de-stress after a long day in the classroom, helping him get ready for the mound of homework that piles up each day.

The Martial Arts Society is also fun. Chanyeol spends the first session wondering how the others can even move the way they do. He just doesn’t have the flexibility for half of the poses, but he enjoys it anyway. Baekhyun is in his element here, demonstrating his vast knowledge of hapkido for the rest of the group. The trainer always seems so pleased with him. Chanyeol finds himself doing better just to please her, too.

His third and final club meets on weekends, which gives only a couple of days for Chanyeol to spend with his friends. The Drama Society is different from the acting and theatre subjects that the university does, and accept those who don’t study drama. They apparently put on plays and pantomimes as a club, and Chanyeol excitedly signs himself up to help assist. A few people recognise him from _A Love without Ties_ , and there are plenty of questions about his relationship (and chemistry) with Joonmyun. Chanyeol thinks that, because of this, it’s best that he not take part in any shows this first term.

The rest of his time is spent at his support group, mostly making sure that Kyung is alright, and learning about Hyunwoo at his new school, and finishing the drama, which is a good bit of fun in the evenings. He doesn’t think that Baekhyun will ever stop teasing him, though.

\---

First year of university is a year of romance—for people who aren’t Chanyeol, of course.

Jinho keeps Chanyeol updated on the situation with Joonmyun and his brother. Apparently they aren’t mates, as Joonmyun had feared, but Kyuhyun had apparently kindled a secret flame for Joonmyun and had never been able to tell him—he’d never even told Jinho.

“They’ve decided that they love each other enough that they don’t want anyone else. I’ve never known anyone personally who formed a life partnership before, but it’s really romantic, don’t you think?” Jinho all but gushes to Chanyeol, his eyes twinkling. “They _chose_ each other. It didn’t choose them.”

Kyung is also faring well. Apparently Siwon’s confession had made his best friend think about omegas a bit more seriously, and he’d apologised to Kyung for being so rude about them and hurting his feelings.

“I never even had to tell him I was an omega,” Kyung says softly. “He knew the whole time.”

Chanyeol knows how that feels.

Kyung’s best friend had apparently then offered to help with Kyung’s heat, in the spirit of embracing the whole thing.

“I may be in love with him but I’m not stupid,” Kyung says. “I know I’m just going to be a notch in his bedpost, and there are no real feelings involved. And yet I keep considering it anyway.”

Hyunwoo has also found his mate. “He’s called Yoo Seungho, and he’s in my History class,” Hyunwoo says, smiling. “He’s an alpha, but he’s not like any I’ve ever met before. He’s quiet and polite and he treats me like a normal human being. We were friends first, and then…” He shrugs, but his smile is fond and Chanyeol’s happy for him.

“I’m glad,” he says. “You deserve this.” He pauses. “Anyway, I told you this would happen.”

“You did,” Hyunwoo says. “Thank you.”

Lastly, Chanyeol comes back from the summer holidays (very relaxing holidays) to meet Zhang Yixing.

Zhang Yixing is an upperclassman from music club, and, according to Jinho, hearts had leapt from Baekhyun’s eyes the moment he saw him.

“I’ve never seen anyone fall in love so quickly,” Jongdae agrees, teasing Baekhyun, who just smiles good-naturedly.

After many months of Baekhyun mooning over Yixing (and his amazing dancing skills), something that, considering Baekhyun’s personality, Chanyeol would have found hard to believe if he hadn’t personally witnessed it, Yixing asks Baekhyun to go out with him.

The official story is that Baekhyun tried to show off by challenging Jongdae to the high notes game and lost spectacularly with the most impressive vocal crack in all history, and Yixing was so endeared at Baekhyun’s attempts to beat the champion that he complimented Baekhyun with a bunch of roses and a spontaneous improv dance routine.

Chanyeol isn’t sure he believes it, but it certainly makes for a good story.

Chanyeol doesn’t find romance in his first year, but he collects a wide variety of notches for his own bedpost. He starts off in his own course with Myungsoo, who is a bit taller than the guys Chanyeol usually goes for, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Afterwards, once he’s settled into university, it becomes a little easier to find partners to help him through his heat. There’s Jeon Hojoon and Choi Minhwan from his own year, and Jeon Jihwan and Oh Kwangsuk from Yixing’s year.

No alphas. He’s learnt his lesson.

He branches out eventually, deliberately picking guys who don’t fit his usual choices. It’s not Yixing and Baekhyun’s fault, except it completely is.

Yixing had started the whole thing. “Chanyeol has a really diverse taste,” he’d said one day, when it was just Yixing, Chanyeol and Baekhyun in the cafeteria. “Do you have a type?”

Before Chanyeol had had the chance to reply, Baekhyun had cut in. “Jongdae,” he’d said. “His type is Jongdae. Short and cute.”

Chanyeol hadn’t known how to respond to this blatantly untrue accusation. He is, however, grateful that Baekhyun’s finally spelled out his delusions, because Chanyeol’s been getting confused for months every time Baekhyun brings up Jongdae when it’s just the two of them.

Chanyeol doesn’t have a crush on Jongdae, and his type is not Jongdae, that’s just ridiculous!

So, in response, he has trysts with Pyo Jihoon and Lee Seungyeol, just because he can.

(It’s not the same, though.)

\---

The year passes. They all get a bit older and a lot busier.

Chanyeol gets very good grades in his Acting class and gets several recommendations to act in television shows. The Drama Society ask him to participate in their Christmas pantomime, which they do at the First Years’ Christmas Party. Chanyeol’s friends catcall him in his fluffy cat outfit, and it’s terribly embarrassing, yet also hilarious.

Music Composition is a lot harder than it looks, and Chanyeol doesn’t have Yixing’s innate talent for it—Yixing is in the year above and seems to write five songs a month. They’re all about Baekhyun. Chanyeol is extremely surprised there are so many different words with which Yixing can describe Baekhyun. Chanyeol can describe Baekhyun using the fingers of one hand (loud, annoying, short, mean, jokester).

Even though Music Composition is difficult, Chanyeol still learns a lot, and he finishes the year with one piece of music he feels proud of. It’s a song called _Who Am I?_ and is about coming to terms with your true identity. Jinho cries when he hears it, so Chanyeol supposes he’s doing something right.

Aside from his courses, he takes part in an amateur level boxing competition. He doesn’t win, but he manages to split the lip of an alpha three times his size—which is just typical, to be honest, but what can you do? Chanyeol feels extremely proud of himself for even getting a hit in. In exchange, he had a black eye for a week and grew very well acquainted with Baekhyun’s BB cream collection. Chanyeol isn’t at all bothered by this.

Chanyeol really has to admit that university is far better than school.

\---

Chanyeol doesn’t really keep in contact with his friends during the couple of weeks between the end of his first year and the start of his second, as he spends them doing _absolutely nothing_ , because he deserves it. He can’t imagine two weeks making much of a difference, but he’s very wrong when he comes back from holidays to discover that he’s the only single, unmated, person left.

Baekhyun and Yixing had been boyfriends for most of the previous year, but they come back to university with butter yellow wristbands.

“Really?” Chanyeol asks, upon seeing them.

“Yup,” Baekhyun says, looking like the cat that got the cream. “One minute there’s a crescent, next thing, boom: full moon.”

Chanyeol really doesn’t want to be thinking about Baekhyun having sex. Again. He does his best to block it from his mind, but it’s quite difficult.

Baekhyun and Yixing’s discovery isn’t the worst thing though. It’s Jinho’s white wristband, and subsequent move out of the single omega dorms.

“He’s…young,” Jinho says, when he’s asked to describe his mate. “I’ve been tutoring him, and he offered to help me. I was apprehensive at first, to be honest. But he’s perfect. I didn’t need to worry.”

He’s Thai, and goes by the name Ten, apparently, because his full name is too difficult for most people to pronounce. Chanyeol’s informed that Ten’s a great and well-known dancer under the name TNT, and Jinho’s eyes sparkle as he talks about how one day he wants to sing and have Ten dance to his voice.

And yet, somehow, Ten sounds little and cute—the complete opposite of Chanyeol—, despite being an alpha, and Chanyeol instantly resents him.

Plus Chanyeol’s going to have to get used to having a new neighbour now. (He’s called Lee Duhwan and he becomes Chanyeol’s next companion during his heat.)

“So you all have foreign mates,” Chanyeol muses aloud. He doesn’t mean it to be rude, it’s just an interesting fact he’s noticed.

“Well done,” Zitao says. “You’ve passed first year Geography, and learnt that there are countries that aren’t Korea.”

Zitao, had, of course, got into the same university as them. Chanyeol kind of wishes he hadn’t. He likes Zitao well enough, but he hadn’t really missed him over the previous year. (Zitao doesn’t really deserve Chanyeol’s annoyance. Chanyeol still blames Baekhyun.)

It does wonders for the group dynamics, though. Yixing and Zitao get on like a house on fire, and sometimes seem to communicate solely in crinkled eyes and strange hand gestures, the odd bit of Mandarin thrown in. Chanyeol isn’t terribly surprised.

And Jongdae is so much happier, now he can see his mate every day.

“We need to find you a mate,” Yixing says to Chanyeol. “I’m sure we can find someone who looks like...someone tiny and cute,” he corrects himself last minute, noticing Jongdae look up with intrigue.

Chanyeol shrugs. “Good luck,” he says.

\---

It takes two months for Yixing to suggest someone for Chanyeol.

“He’s tiny and cute and he’s one of my good friends in the Chinese Society,” Yixing says. “You’ll like him.”

The Chinese Society is not just for Chinese students, but also those of Chinese heritage, or those who are studying Chinese. Jongdae is a member, but neither of the others are, preferring to let him have something to himself. Chanyeol himself can only say two things in Chinese (hello and thank you). He wonders if he should learn more.

Yixing takes him to the next meeting, which is held in a cosy common room off from one of the cafeterias near the single beta dorms.

Chanyeol doesn’t recognise most of the twenty-or-so people there, just Yixing, Jongdae, Zitao, and Cousin Amber. Yixing carefully introduces everyone.

Chanyeol has heard some of the names before, like Wu Yifan and Lu Han, who are campus royalty, and he’s surprised when he puts names to faces. He hadn’t imagined Lu Han being so pretty. He also hadn’t expected both to be betas. From the way people talk about them, he’d been expecting alphas. He supposes that that shows again that not all people with imposing personalities are alphas. As an omega who doesn’t look like one, he should probably stop trying to stereotype people.

The person Yixing had wanted Chanyeol to meet is called Kim Minseok. He is tiny, though not as small as Joonmyun, and he has a very nice smile, and reminds Chanyeol _very_ strongly of his friend Sohee. Yixing introduces them happily and lets them talk together in the corner.

Minseok likes football, which springs them into their first main conversation about positions they played and teams they supported. When Chanyeol briefly explains why he stopped playing, trying to be as careful as possible, Minseok nods.

“We had a similar situation,” he says. “A very good player was ousted from our team because he was an omega. I argued to keep him, but I didn’t have enough clout with the Captain. The omega was younger than me, and when I made Captain in my final year, I invited him back onto the team. He could do most of the practices and matches, so it made no sense to penalise him for one weekend a month.”

It makes an awful lot of sense when Minseok puts it like that, and Chanyeol feels pleased that there was at least one Captain of a football team who allowed omegas on his team.

Minseok is two years older, Chanyeol learns, but he’s easy to talk to and Chanyeol enjoys his company. After a few meetings, he feels comfortable enough to ask Minseok to help with his heat.

Minseok actually seems _surprised_ to be asked. “Oh,” he says. “Uh.”

Chanyeol’s face falls. He wonders if it just wasn’t the right time. There’s no such thing as a _signal_ when it comes to omegas, so he can’t have been reading the signals wrong. Omegas have the right to ask whoever they want, just as they have the right to refuse. It’s just the way things should be.

“I’m sorry,” Chanyeol says. “I didn’t realise it would make you uncomfortable.”

“No, no,” Minseok says. “I just…Yixing told me you don’t usually go for alphas. I was surprised.”

Over the past few meetings, Minseok’s aspect hasn’t really come up, but Chanyeol isn’t stupid. Even without looking at Minseok’s wristband, he’d already worked out that Minseok’s an alpha. And, for once, it doesn’t bother him.

“I need to start somewhere,” Chanyeol says, deliberately neglecting to mention his experiences with Jihyun and Ailee, because it really wasn’t the same. “And I’d like it to be with you. You’re just what I need right now.”

Flattery always works.

And Chanyeol knows it was the right decision when Minseok’s alpha pheromones are in full swing, his knot swelling deep in Chanyeol, a week later. He has his fingers tangled in Chanyeol’s hair, pulling his head back the deeper in he pushes. His cock is comfortable, its shape what Chanyeol is used to, rather than the thinner female knots, and even stretched loose Chanyeol enjoys it. He releases over the bed blissfully, perfectly happy to let Minseok have his way with him for as long as he pleases. It’s unfortunately only one and a half days of sex and Chanyeol feels happy and sated and, for once, like it wasn’t _nearly_ long enough.

Clearly he shouldn’t have avoided male alphas for this long, if every experience is going to be like this.

But Minseok isn’t Chanyeol’s mate, as their crescent moons haven’t changed into full moons. So Chanyeol needs to keep looking. He’ll find him eventually.

\---

Every second year Acting student has to do a team project.

Chanyeol had presumed that it’d be okay to pair up with someone from his class, such as Jiwon or Myungsoo, but during their combined lecture with the other drama courses, they’re informed that there’s a caveat: they need to include aspects they weren’t taught in their own course. Therefore they need to partner up with someone from one of the other courses.

Chanyeol doesn’t know anyone from the other courses, having chosen to stick with his friends. But clearly he was the only one; the rest of his friends easily find partners from Practical Theatre or History of Theatre. Chanyeol remains one of the only people who haven’t found a partner.

He’s not the only one though, seeing several others who are on their own, looking around at the others nervously or with confused expressions on their faces.

Of the other people who are alone, two are from Chanyeol’s class, so he discounts them instantly. Of those left, there are two girls and two guys.

One of the guys is tiny, small in his chair, and with wide eyes that make him look both surprised and scared. Chanyeol has never seen him before, but just looking at him, he thinks he’s adorable, something growing warm in his lower stomach. He carefully makes his way over before someone else can steal him. As he moves, he can see one of the girls wilt in her seat, and he tries not to grin.

“Hey,” Chanyeol says. “Do you mind if we work together?”

The smaller boy shrugs, and Chanyeol sits down next to him.

“I’m Chanyeol,” Chanyeol says. “I’m on the Acting course.”

The boy nods at him. “Kyungsoo,” he says. “Practical Theatre.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t really talk much, that first day. He seems perfectly willing to let Chanyeol do most of the talking, just nodding in response, though he does interject when he feels it necessary. He has a nice voice; warm and cosy, though with just a touch of sharpness to it.

There’s something about Kyungsoo that has Chanyeol thinking about him after they’ve headed their separate ways. Chanyeol just doesn’t know what it is, but he definitely wants to know more about him.

\---

Chanyeol and Kyungsoo spend a lot of time together over the next few weeks, as their project is to write a script for a play together, using lessons taught from each of their classes.

At first they stick to being mostly professional; only talking about their play, but as the weeks go by, Chanyeol does his best to learn more about Kyungsoo. He watches the way Kyungsoo’s face crinkles when he’s trying not to laugh, the way his lips turn into a heart-shaped bow when he smiles. He learns that Kyungsoo likes talking about music, and that their taste in music is similar.

“I write songs,” Chanyeol says, after Kyungsoo admits that he sings.

“Maybe I’ll sing one of your songs one day,” Kyungsoo offers, and Chanyeol grins.

They talk about all sorts of things, like Chanyeol’s evil sister and Kyungsoo’s quiet older brother, and their courses, and their friends, but the one thing they don’t talk about is aspects.

Chanyeol can’t really keep his a secret, as his blue wristband lives on show, but Kyungsoo’s wrists are bare, he has no discernible pheromones, and he avoids talking about his aspect. Chanyeol wonders if he’s ashamed of it.

Chanyeol doesn’t want to upset his new friend, and so he never brings it up. He talks sometimes about his heats and the guys he sleeps with, but doesn’t go any further. He knows what it’s like to not like your aspect and he doesn’t want to hurt anyone else.

They get more and more comfortable with each other, until Chanyeol is inviting Kyungsoo to eat lunch with him and his friends. It turns out that Kyungsoo knows Jongdae and Baekhyun from Music Club, and he and the other three get on well. They seem to approve, if the way Yixing claps Chanyeol on the back means anything. Chanyeol is just happy they like Kyungsoo.

\---

Every month, Chanyeol has his heat, and every month, Chanyeol has to do the search to find a new partner, as he rarely ever sleeps with the same person twice.

Kyungsoo tags along one day. “I want to see how you work,” he says mildly. “Whatever you do, it seems to work.”

But Chanyeol’s never performed for an audience. The first two guys he asks seem confused by Kyungsoo’s presence, and Chanyeol then messes up, insulting one and annoying the other.

“What am I doing wrong?” Chanyeol grumbles.

“You’re a fool,” Kyungsoo says, cheerfully and almost fondly. “It’s good to know it was as I expected; luck.”

Chanyeol isn’t insulted, though. Instead, he smiles, like Kyungsoo has just given him a nickname—something just for him.

Possibly realising that Chanyeol likes it, Kyungsoo begins to use the term more regularly. Chanyeol’s friends, especially Baekhyun and Jinho, start teasing Chanyeol about it, but without any real malice, because Kyungsoo isn’t doing it meanly. It’s just something to show they’re friends.

It makes Chanyeol happy to know that they’re all close enough to do this.

\---

Kyungsoo is part of the Drama Club, and Chanyeol joins him sometimes, going over their script together quietly whilst other members of the club practise scenes from their own plays, or discuss ones to do for the end of the year. This is how they finish their play script—and once they’re done with it, they try to act it out themselves.

The play is about a serious omega and a jolly university student who hasn’t disclosed his aspect, having a fun time together and soaking up the personality traits of the other as they fall in love and want to appeal more to the other. The omega girl ends up far sillier and her mate far calmer, against their true natures, and in the end they realise they just need to be themselves to make each other happy.

The Drama Club has tons of fun trying to make Kyungsoo say the lines of the omega girl and Chanyeol the lines of the jolly man. Chanyeol enjoys it, and he thinks that Kyungsoo might as well, for all his eye-rolls about being stereotyped. “I’m not an omega girl,” he says at least once, with a huge huff.

Chanyeol wonders if that’s a confession that he isn’t an omega, or a confession that he _is_ , and then decides that it probably doesn’t matter.

(They are awarded two Firsts for their script and Chanyeol squeezes Kyungsoo so tightly in his glee that he wonders if he’s broken him, and he spends ten minutes afterwards checking that he’s not going to die from a punctured lung.)

\---

The year passes by, and Chanyeol sleeps with even more boys of varying heights and types—Baek Myunghan, Kim Hansol, Lee Byunghun, Jung Jinyoung, Lee Hongbin, Jang Yijeong, and so many more—, sometimes helping others with their heats, too.

In that time, he spots Kyungsoo date exactly zero people.

He gets curious about it. He’s not asking about the state of his aspect, so he feels safe enough with the topic.

“So, I’ve never seen you date anyone,” he says, trying for casual. They’re in the cafeteria, waiting for the rest of the group to join them for lunch, the hall loud with the activity of other students.

Kyungsoo stops eating his bulgogi and looks up at him with what Chanyeol has worked out is his ‘judging stare’, the one that, to other people, just looks like a deer caught in headlights. Kyungsoo doesn’t have a lot of expressions. “You don’t date, either,” he says.

“Well, no,” Chanyeol admits, “but I’m on my way to finding my mate.” He’s come to terms with the fact that even though he may not find his mate soon, he’s at least trying. Eventually he’s going to sleep with the right person at the right time and they’re going to be linked together for life. Unlike when he was still in school and didn’t have many options, he only sleeps with each person once, because if they don’t mate in that one time, they’re never going to mate together; there’s no point continuing to sleep together.

Kyungsoo sighs. “It’s not a big deal,” he says. “I’m happy like this.”

“Okay,” Chanyeol says. “If you’re sure.”

Kyungsoo turns back to his food as if to say that the topic is closed.

But, unlike with the romantic interests of his other friends, Chanyeol can’t let this go. Instead of bothering Kyungsoo with it, he watches the other boy in his interactions with other people, girls and guys alike. He listens to Kyungsoo’s conversations about his friends who aren’t Chanyeol.

He learns that Kyungsoo has dated before, although Kyungsoo never says names. He learns that when Kyungsoo was still in school, he was good friends with his neighbour, an older girl called Sojin.

“We used to hang out. People thought we were dating, which was really awkward. Her mate Ahyoung was one of my classmates,” Kyungsoo says, laughing. “Sojin and Ahyoung never really took it to heart, and now I can laugh about it, but at the time I felt so awkward about it.”

Kyungsoo has a lot of female friends, apparently, and all of them are mated; Juhyun with her mate Seulgi, Bomi with Eunji, Yuna, Sunmi, Heeyoun, Ahra and Yoonjo, and Ahyeon. Chanyeol wonders if that was for a reason, though he can’t imagine why.

Chanyeol realises that he is one of the only unmated friends that Kyungsoo has, and he finds that very odd.

\---

At the end of the year, Chanyeol has to say goodbye to a lot of the older guys he’d met during the year, like Minseok—even Yixing graduates from university, leaving Baekhyun all but distraught at the discovery that he won’t be able to live with his mate each day for the next year.

It’s a lot sadder than the end of their first year, because Chanyeol hadn’t branched out so much in that one. But now he’s mixed with different people, and he has to say goodbye to them.

But after he comes back from their end-of-the-year holiday for his third and final year, there are tons of new people to meet.

One of them is Park Jinyoung.

Jinyoung is a new member of the Beta & Omega Martial Arts Society. He’s cute, but that’s about the only similarity between him and guys Chanyeol has previously been interested in, as he’s far taller than they are. But he’s nice, and Chanyeol enjoys his company, and he likes the idea of getting to spend time with Jinyoung more intimately.

But Jinyoung is always accompanied by Mark Tuan, an alpha friend of his from the Alpha Martial Arts Society, who comes to watch their practices sometimes—Chanyeol has no idea how he manages it without being kicked out like other alphas do for being creepy, though he supposes it’s the fact that Mark is completely unthreatening—and he takes his self-appointed job as team cheerleader very seriously. He’s always smiling and ready with his cheerleading aegyo, to build them back up when they fall. Chanyeol actually enjoys his company, but he’s too intimidated by his presence to talk about anything important with Jiyoung when he’s around.

Chanyeol decides, on the one day that Mark isn’t there to watch them due to prior commitments, that he should ask Jinyoung to help him with his heat, which is coming up at the weekend. He stays behind after practice with the guise of locking up the club room for their instructor. Jinyoung always takes a long time to get ready after practice has finished, so it’s the perfect ruse.

He’s been there for a good few minutes, cleaning up his clothing and subtly watching Jinyoung’s cool-down process, when Kyungsoo turns up.

“What are you doing?” Kyungsoo asks. “We were supposed to be meeting everyone five minutes ago.”

“Uh, sorry. I’m waiting for Jinyoung to finish,” Chanyeol says quietly, scratching his neck almost sheepishly as he continues to watch Jinyoung stretch. “I was going to ask him to help me with my heat.”

Kyungsoo raises his eyebrows. It’s rather disconcerting. “You are aware that Mark Tuan will punch you in the face if you do that, right?”

“What? No,” Chanyeol says, eyes wide with surprise. “He’ll what?”

“Punch you in the face,” Kyungsoo repeats. “I think he’s been working up the courage to ask Jinyoung out for _months_.”

That strangely makes sense; Mark is always around them, cheering them on. But Mark is gentle and kind and Chanyeol can’t really see him punching anyone in the face.

“But it’s just…help?” Chanyeol says. “I don’t want to date him, I just think he’s cute.”

Kyungsoo sighs. “Your funeral,” he says, and shrugs. “I’ll go and tell everyone you’re a fool with a death wish. Bye Chanyeol.” As he stands up, he calls, “Bye Jinyoung!” to the younger, who waves happily.

“Bye Hyung!” he calls after him, eyes crinkled as he smiles. Chanyeol loves Jinyoung’s smile.

Chanyeol continues waiting until Jinyoung’s finished getting ready to leave, before he takes his chance. “Hey, Jinyoung,” he says.

“Oh, hi, Chanyeol-hyung,” Jinyoung says. “Were you waiting for me to go?”

“No, I was waiting for you,” Chanyeol says. “I was wondering if you…it’s my heat this weekend and I wondered if you’d be free to help me?”

Jinyoung looks surprised. “Oh!” he says. “I had—I had no idea. Um, I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol says, looking down at his feet. Jinyoung’s expensive dance shoes are nice and stylish. Chanyeol wonders how he’d look in a pair like that. “Sorry for asking.”

“It’s not you,” Jinyoung says, hurrying to reassure Chanyeol. “I’ve just…I’ve been waiting for Mark-hyung to ask.”

Chanyeol nods. “I understand.” And the thing is, he _does_ understand. If Mark likes Jinyoung enough to cheerlead for them, it’s not surprising that Jinyoung was charmed. “I hope he asks soon.”

“I’m sure you’ll find someone, Hyung,” Jinyoung says. “I’m absolutely sure of it.”

And then he’s gone, leaving Chanyeol alone in the room and without a partner for this coming heat.

\---

Mark does punch Chanyeol, but it’s with less force than he could have. Chanyeol doesn’t break anything, although he thinks he’ll probably have a black eye.

Chanyeol still reels from the force. “You should just _ask him out_ ,” he says as he stumbles backwards. “I had _no idea_ , but I’d never have asked if he was taken.” He trips over a loose stone and drops heavily to the floor, grunting in pain. How pathetic of him, and how very typical.

Mark sighs. “It’s harder than it looks!” he whines, before stretching out a hand to pull Chanyeol up. His biceps bulge. He probably works out three times a week, with those arms. Even with Chanyeol’s boxing, he doesn’t think his arm strength is anywhere near Mark’s. “But you’ve done me a favour,” Mark continues. “I know I have to ask him before someone else gets the same idea you did.”

“It’s not like he’ll be against it,” Chanyeol grumbles. “He rejected me for you.”

Mark’s eyes sparkle as he smiles. “Thanks,” he says. “Anyway, don’t take it too hard. I know you’ll find someone, Hyung.”

“That’s what Jinyoung said, too,” Chanyeol says.

“Well, it’s true,” Mark says. “You’ve always got guys hanging around you, waiting to be asked. You’re not exactly short of people attracted to you.”

Chanyeol’s surprised, because he’s never even _noticed_ , and nobody’s ever said it to him before. Guys hang around him? He hasn’t noticed any. “Do I really?” he asks.

“Well, yeah,” Mark says. “You’re a tall, handsome, popular omega. I know tons of guys who would love to spend the night with you. Though it doesn’t matter. Your preferences are well-known, and most of them are too tall to make the cut.” He stops and cocks his head. “Actually, I’d have thought Jinyoung was too tall as well; he’s not that much shorter than you.”

Chanyeol shrugs. “He’s cute.”

“He is,” Mark agrees. “But he’s also an omega. If you’re looking for someone who can truly help you, maybe look for an alpha like Kyungsoo-hyung? I’m sure he’d help you.”

An alpha like Kyungsoo.

_An alpha like Kyungsoo._

Chanyeol jolts. “He’s a _what_?” shoots out of his mouth before he can stop himself.

Mark shrugs. “I don’t know for sure because he’s so secretive about it but I’m…ninety per cent sure he’s an alpha on suppressants? He just…he seems like one. Maybe you should ask him?”

“Yeah I’ll…do that,” Chanyeol says. “Thanks.”

“Sorry if I bruised your eye,” Mark calls as Chanyeol leaves, and Chanyeol just sighs.

\---

He doesn’t see Kyungsoo until the afternoon, by which point there _is_ a large bruise developing around his eye. It hurts a bit, but it’s more of a nuisance than anything else. Baekhyun gives him some more concealer, but he doesn’t bother with it this time, wondering if he should just leave it.

Kyungsoo must hear from Baekhyun about what happened, because he comes over to Chanyeol’s dorm with a packet of ice and a tea towel.

“I told you you’d get punched,” he says calmly as he shakes ice into the towel and gives it to Chanyeol to hold it to his eye. “You’re a fool.” It’s slightly fond, as always. “You should have called me earlier.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Chanyeol says, tilting his head back so he can let the homemade ice pack rest. “I just don’t know why he didn’t punch me somewhere less visible.”

“To prove to everyone how stupid you are,” Kyungsoo offers. “What did Jinyoung say, anyway?”

“He said no because he’s waiting for Mark,” Chanyeol says, sighing and shutting his eyes. “I’m back to having no one for the weekend.”

Chanyeol can hear Kyungsoo doing something with the bag of ice, maybe folding it back up. “Just out of curiosity, why have you never asked me?”

His voice sounds strange. Chanyeol can’t place what’s odd about it, but there’s definitely _something_ off.

Chanyeol shrugs as best he can in this position. “I dunno, we’re friends? It’d be weird.”

“You and I know that’s a lie,” Kyungsoo says. “You’ve slept with all your friends except the mates and Jongdae, and that’s only because he was already mated before you had the chance. And Jiwon, but that’s only because you’re not interested in girls.”

“Well…” Chanyeol sighs again. “Are you even interested in guys? And I don’t even know what aspect you have. We’ve never talked about it.”

“I have no issue with sleeping with boys. And I don’t tend to share my aspect because people don’t usually believe me,” Kyungsoo says. “They usually laugh when I tell them I’m an alpha.”

Mark had been right. Chanyeol swallows. “Well, I’m an omega, and look at me,” he says, limply waving at himself. “I would be in no position to laugh at you.” Especially not with his usual type of short boys, these days with a preference for alphas. Mark was right. Kyungsoo fits perfectly into his type, unlike Jinyoung.

“Anyway,” Kyungsoo says, barrelling on as if Chanyeol hadn’t spoken, “you don’t need to know an aspect to sleep with someone. It’s just a matter of taste.”

Chanyeol may be slow, but he thinks he’s beginning to _get_ it. “Kyungsoo,” he says carefully, “do you want me to ask you?”

Kyungsoo sighs loudly. “You’re a fool,” he repeats, though this is harsher than his usual tone. He actually sounds like he _means_ it, this time.

“Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol whines, “it’s in three days. I _do_ need the help.”

“Well, because you asked so nicely,” Kyungsoo says, the sarcasm thick in his voice. “I’ll help you. I’ll meet you at the dorm at nine.”

Then he drops the bag of ice into Chanyeol’s lap, causing him to jerk upright and cup himself, the ice falling from his face, just in time to see Kyungsoo leave.

Chanyeol wonders what he’s done wrong.

\---

“I don’t understand,” Chanyeol says to the group when they meet for lunch the next day. Kyungsoo is nowhere to be seen. Chanyeol hasn’t seen him since he’d stormed out of his dorm room without a word. “What did I do wrong? I don’t understand him.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Baekhyun says. “You’ve known Kyungsoo for over a year now and he hasn’t fucked you yet?”

“That’s all I’m getting out of this too,” Jinho says. “This is the slowest you’ve ever gone, Chanyeol.”

Chanyeol drops his face onto his arms on the table, hoping that he doesn’t smudge any concealer onto the sleeves of his jumper. He’d eventually caved and put some on, because he doesn’t really want to look like he’s been beaten up. “Why am I friends with you, again?”

The rest of them just laugh.

“It sounds like he’s just upset that you haven’t asked him,” Zitao says, “and it took him mentioning it for you to ask him.”

“Like an afterthought,” Jongdae adds.

“He wasn’t an afterthought,” Chanyeol says. “I just…I didn’t think he’d be interested. He never shows any interest in anyone, much less in me. I didn’t even know he liked guys until yesterday.”

“I don’t think that’s it,” Zitao says airily.

“Well if you know so much, please, enlighten me,” Chanyeol grumbles, probably a little too sharply.

Zitao raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know anything for sure,” he says. “Maybe you should just talk to him about it?”

“I would if I could find him,” Chanyeol says.

\---

Unfortunately, he can’t find Kyungsoo before the weekend. He looks around, sends him KKT messages, and even heads to his dorm—he lives in the same dorms as Sohee, the ones for people who haven’t disclosed their aspects—, but Kyungsoo seems to have vanished.

But at least, on the day Chanyeol’s heat begins, he’s where he’d said he’d be; waiting outside the heat dorms, arms folded. Chanyeol can just see a peek of green from beneath the sleeve of Kyungsoo’s black hoodie, and it takes him all the way back to when he’d got his own wristbands, wishing that his were green.

Chanyeol greets Kyungsoo with a slightly unsure smile, but Kyungsoo doesn’t respond in kind. It makes Chanyeol feel awful.

They sign in silently, although Chanyeol smiles to assure the beta at the window that the situation is fine, and then they head to their assigned room.

Chanyeol kicks off his shoes, places down the bag of extra clothing he’s bought, having learnt from experience how unpleasant it is to walk home in soaked jeans that smell of his heat, and then perches on the bed, the most uncomfortable he’s been in one of these rooms since when he’d been in one with Baekhyun. But there’s something _different_ about this awkwardness—it’s not just the nervousness of knowing he’s about to have sex with a friend. It’s something else.

“Hey,” he says. “I’m sorry about…I’m sorry if I made you feel like an afterthought. I didn’t mean it. But I’ll understand if you don’t want to help me anymore.”

Kyungsoo gives a huff. “That’s not it,” he says. It’s the first time he’s spoken to Chanyeol in a few days and Chanyeol smiles in relief.

“What was it?” he asks. “What did I do?”

Kyungsoo sighs. “It’s not your fault,” he says. “I’m sorry for the way I behaved. It was silly of me.”

“Please tell me, so I can fix it,” Chanyeol says. “I don’t want to upset anyone else the way I upset you.”

Kyungsoo frowns. He’s being unusually expressive today, Chanyeol notes absently. “Seriously, don’t worry about it,” he says. “Anyway, we’re here for you. What can I do for you?”

Chanyeol shrugs. “We just have to wait for it to start, I’m afraid,” he says. “I usually just…talk until it happens.”

“Okay,” Kyungsoo says. “I can do that.”

He toes off his shoes and heads over to sit beside Chanyeol.

Feeling like his apology has been accepted, Chanyeol feels more comfortable—though still a little strange—as they catch up on recent topics, sharing the statuses of their courses and clubs. Chanyeol shares a little about his support group, and how their help got him to this stage in his life, where he’s comfortable sleeping with alphas.

“I haven’t been in months,” he says. “I wonder how they’re all doing.” He still communicates with Kyung and Hyunwoo, but the rest of them have fallen off the grid. He wonders if any of them have left, and wonders if Mijoo is finally able to be herself. He makes a mental note to follow up on this at some point.

“It’s good that you now feel comfortable,” Kyungsoo says. “I’m comfortable with who I am, but it’s other people who get uncomfortable, knowing that I’m an alpha. I usually take alpha suppressants just because my pheromones can get overpowering, and it’s less of a hassle without all that fuss.” He pauses. “I would be no use to you if I took them, so I haven’t taken them today.”

And that’s when Chanyeol realises that what the odd sensation he’s been feeling is; Kyungsoo’s alpha pheromones. He can just about feel Kyungsoo’s emotions with them, which explains his earlier discomfort. Kyungsoo had been feeling uncomfortable, as well.

“Your pheromones are strong,” Chanyeol says. “I’ve been with lots of alphas now but I’ve never been able to feel their emotions before.”

Kyungsoo gives him a very strange look. Chanyeol doesn’t understand what it means.

He doesn’t have the opportunity to ask, though, as his heat is upon him as fast as it always is.

He stands and begins removing his clothes, feeling Kyungsoo’s eyes on him, watching his every movement. Chanyeol has slept with a lot of people who are interested in him, but he’s also slept with people who seemed to have no physical attraction towards him whatsoever, though the desire to help him overcomes their lack of attraction. Yet this seems different.

When he’s fully naked, he stands there a little, not looking directly at Kyungsoo.

“Look at me,” Kyungsoo commands, and Chanyeol finds himself obeying instantly, his body desperately wanting to listen to, and _please_ , this alpha. Kyungsoo’s eyes are hungry and full of desire as they scan Chanyeol’s body. “What would you like?”

“You to get naked,” Chanyeol says, and then wonders if that was too forward.

But Kyungsoo seems to take it in good stride. He stands and tugs his hoodie and t-shirt over his head in one go, revealing his green wristband and that, like Jinho, he’s far more muscled than his outward appearance made Chanyeol think. Then his trousers and underwear come off. He’s half-hard, beginning to curl up towards his stomach, and a size that looks like it will fill Chanyeol up rather nicely.

Chanyeol’s mouth waters as he gets the uncommon desire to give Kyungsoo a blowjob. He sucks his lip into his mouth as he stares as it swells.

“What would you like now?” Kyungsoo asks. “Do you want to—?” He points at his cock.

Chanyeol nods, and swallows. “Can I?” he asks.

“ _Please_ ,” Kyungsoo says, dropping his head back to look at the ceiling.

Chanyeol sinks to his knees, feeling more stable on the ground as he crawls the metre to get to Kyungsoo. He kneels between Kyungsoo’s thighs and wraps his hand somewhat nervously around Kyungsoo’s dick, stroking it a few times and feeling it, hot and heavy in his hand. Then he brings his mouth down to meet it and licks the tip.

He’s had a few more experiences of giving blowjobs since Hyunwoo, so he thinks he isn’t too bad as he fits his mouth around the flesh in his hand, tongue pressed against the tip. Kyungsoo doesn’t seem to have any complaints if his moans are anything to go by.

Kyungsoo pushes Chanyeol away a few minutes in, his cock slipping out of his mouth with an obscene noise. “Stop, stop,” he says. “Get on the bed.”

Chanyeol can feel the order roll over him and he scrambles to obey, pulling himself up.

He feels Kyungsoo crawl behind him, so close that he can feel his wet cock against the skin of his thighs. Chanyeol’s thighs are soaked, the bedclothes already dampening by his knees, so it’s probably not particularly comfortable for Kyungsoo—it certainly isn’t for Chanyeol. It takes everything for Chanyeol to not beg him to fuck him _right now_.

Kyungsoo goes slowly, which is the most torturous thing for someone in heat, who needs quick gratification. He takes his time running his hands over Chanyeol’s body, touching erogenous zones Chanyeol didn’t even know he had. Tweaking Chanyeol’s nipples causes him to come, completely untouched, and Chanyeol blushes fiercely in embarrassment.

“ _Please_ ,” he begs as he hardens again, unable to take this for much longer.

Kyungsoo isn’t cruel this time. He runs his fingers slowly up Chanyeol’s thighs, coating them with lube, and then carefully pushes one inside. Chanyeol gives a sigh of relief at the familiar intrusion, and rocks slightly. Kyungsoo pushes another two inside and scissors them, stretching Chanyeol for him.

He holds his fingers still. Chanyeol rocks, trying to push them deeper, although they aren’t quite long enough to touch where he needs them to. Thrusting back onto Kyungsoo’s fingers helps the pressure build up, and soon he’s coming for the second time, cock still untouched.

Kyungsoo keeps his fingers there, thrusting them until Chanyeol is hard and well-stretched, and then there’s the noise of a condom packet, and finally, _finally_ , Kyungsoo is pushing inside.

He’s warm and big and he sets a punishing yet somehow comfortable pace. Chanyeol loves it. He loves every bit of how Kyungsoo is fucking him.

Kyungsoo fucks him through several orgasms before his knot grows, and Chanyeol has never had a knot as comfortable as Kyungsoo’s. He smiles widely in pleasure as he feels the knot push against his prostate, spreading him around its girth easily. Chanyeol comes explosively over the bed, and enjoys the connection between the two of them until the knot releases.

Kyungsoo knots him three times over the space of the day, and each one is better than the previous time. Chanyeol honestly has to admit that this is the best sexual experience he’s ever had, and he’s delighted that he gets the chance to have more of it.

“Thank you, Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol says, after they’ve put aside their dinner rubbish of three ramyun pots each, and are getting ready to sleep. “I’ve really enjoyed this.”

He drifts off to sleep, curled up close next to Kyungsoo, smiling.

\---

Chanyeol wakes up for the second time in his life to discover an empty bed. Kyungsoo’s shoes and clothes are gone. Chanyeol checks to see if there’s a note, but there isn’t one. Maybe Kyungsoo just left to get them breakfast.

Chanyeol waits two hours for Kyungsoo to come back, just in case he’s wandered off to get them something and lost track of time. But he doesn’t come back.

The tell-tale prickle of heat comes back first, as Chanyeol is miserably opening the door again to check if Kyungsoo’s coming up the hall.

He’s not the only one in the corridor. There’s a guy further down, by another room, a leaf green wristband visible above his cuffs as he stretches, white shirt riding up. He begins to walk down towards the entrance. He’s almost as tall as Chanyeol is, definitely as tall as Jinyoung, but the wetness is starting to bother Chanyeol, dripping down the backs of his thighs, and he’ll do.

“Excuse me,” Chanyeol calls over to him, before he loses his nerve. “Would you have time to…to help me? My companion’s left me before my heat’s finished.”

The guy stops and turns to face him. Now he can see his face, Chanyeol vaguely recognises him from Chinese Society. He thinks his name might be Henry, like Amber’s mate. Chanyeol thinks he must be a Master’s student—as far as he remembers, he was in Minseok’s class, and Minseok’s already finished university.

“Okay,” the guy (Henry?) says. “I was just going home, but I can stay for a bit. Do you think it’ll take much time?”

Chanyeol shakes his head and opens the door for Henry, who comes in after him with a smile. He runs his eyes up and down Chanyeol’s naked body with a strange expression on his face—definitely not eager, just somewhat polite. Chanyeol wonders if he’s just not attracted and helping out of courtesy. He wouldn’t be the first.

“What would you like me to do for you?” Henry asks.

Chanyeol had wanted Henry to help in general—maybe finger him, give him a blowjob—, but there’s something churning in his stomach at the idea of being touched. It rolls around as he tries to think of something harmless.

“Could you…could you just touch me?” Chanyeol asks. Maybe it’s just in his head. Maybe it’s anxiety about Kyungsoo leaving early.

But when Henry reaches out to touch Chanyeol’s cock, Chanyeol thinks he’s going to throw up. He claps his hands over his mouth quickly, trying to stop himself.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Chanyeol says, eyes prickling with tears.

Henry leans over to look at Chanyeol’s hips. “Oh,” he says. “I thought it was odd that I couldn’t sense you.”

“What?” Chanyeol asks, raising his hands to press against his eyelids.

“I don’t get in the way of disputes between omegas and their alphas, sorry. I can’t help you.” Henry stands quickly. “I’d better get away before he smells me on you.”

“What are you _talking_ about?” Chanyeol asks.

“You’ve got a full moon, there,” Henry says, indicating his own hip. “You’ve been claimed.”

“O-oh,” Chanyeol says. He turns to look at it, and sure enough; his aspect crescent has filled in to a full moon. Chanyeol’s been claimed.

By an alpha who walked out on him before his heat was even over.

Chanyeol lets Henry leave, as there’s nothing else he can do, and then drops back onto the bed, knowing he needs to finish his heat. He manages it with one hand around his cock and three fingers pressed inside, until he’s come twice and his body gives him reprieve. He uses it by staring up at the ceiling.

Now he’s mated, he doesn’t feel too different from before, just more helpless. He was so used to his routine of finding a new companion every month that having one for the rest of his life is a surprise. He’s known for a long time that eventually he’d find a mate, and when he was younger he’d always thought it’d be quick. But after getting to university, he’d grown to enjoy being unattached.

But now he has Kyungsoo.

Chanyeol likes Kyungsoo well enough, but he’s never really felt any other overwhelming feelings for him. Kyungsoo wanting to be asked to help Chanyeol _had_ surprised him, because he’d never thought that Kyungsoo had any feelings for him, either. And maybe he doesn’t, because he didn’t even leave Chanyeol a note to say why he left.

But Chanyeol hopes that if he and Kyungsoo spend more time together as mates, that Chanyeol will, in time, fall for him, and the same with Kyungsoo. Maybe they just need to know that they are each other’s. Kyungsoo is physically cute, in a deceptive way, and Chanyeol sometimes just wants to cuddle him. He also wants to be cuddled by Kyungsoo. Chanyeol has never wanted to be cuddled before.

(The sex was also very good, and he wouldn’t mind more of it. But that would require Kyungsoo.)

\---

Chanyeol didn’t bring the other wristband with him to university; maybe because he didn’t really think he’d find his mate here, or maybe because he was too scared to think of the possibility. But in any case, he’s stuck with his blue wristband until he can change it. He could phone home and ask for them to post it to him, but Chanyeol doesn’t want to announce it without talking to Kyungsoo about it first.

But talking to Kyungsoo is tricky, as he seems determined to ignore and avoid Chanyeol. More than once, Chanyeol’s been walking towards Kyungsoo, when Kyungsoo’s turned in the opposite direction and walked away quickly. Despite his short legs, he’s much faster than Chanyeol will ever be.

Because he hasn’t changed his wristband, hasn’t been _claimed_ , his friends don’t realise that Chanyeol has mated. As such, they just brush over Kyungsoo’s weekend with Chanyeol, only teasing him a little bit. When he doesn’t respond, they stop.

“Are you okay?” Jinho asks softly when it’s just the two of them. “You seem down.”

Chanyeol nods, but he’s lying.

Jinho looks like he’s going to say something, but he doesn’t; instead letting it slide. Chanyeol is grateful that he’s as kind as he is.

Chanyeol shares one lecture a week with Kyungsoo, but they don’t get to talk in there. Kyungsoo arrives last and sits as far away from Chanyeol as he possibly can, and he always leaves first. Chanyeol doesn’t understand what he’s done wrong. Kyungsoo even refuses to answer to KKT messages or to notes flung or passed across the room like they’re still in high school, so eventually, after two weeks, Chanyeol stops even trying. There’s no point.

It’s at this point that Chanyeol decides to hell with it. He doesn’t need to try to appeal to a mate who clearly doesn’t want him.

But his body, recognising he’s mated, won’t allow him to flirt with any other alphas. So when his friends pester him about who his next conquest is going to be, Chanyeol can’t do anything except shrug and say he’s alright. Chanyeol knows better than to lie to them once again, but he still can’t bear to admit to them that he’s mated whilst Kyungsoo is still avoiding him. It’s all he can do to skirt the topic, but he knows that Baekhyun’s not going to let him get away with that for too much longer. Soon he’s going to have to tell them what happened.

He doesn’t have to before his first heat happens, a month after Kyungsoo walked out on him. Chanyeol can’t believe it’s been a month since he last talked to Kyungsoo. Sometimes his friends will ask him why they haven’t seen him for a while, and Chanyeol will make up some terrible excuse about how he’s busy these days. Chanyeol has no idea, but he may as well be.

For his heat, Chanyeol searches through his belongings until he finds the silicone toy, which he had brought with him just in case he and his partner wanted to experiment. He’s only used it once this year, but he’s grateful he brought it with him now.

Chanyeol knows that omegas can go to the heat dorms on their own, as omegas like Jongdae and Jinho, who have a mate who didn’t go to university at the same time as them, still need a safe place to spend their heats. So Chanyeol goes dutifully the morning his heat is going to begin, signs himself in as a person on their own, and heads in.

This is the first time he’s spent a heat without anyone to help for _years_ , and as such, it’s _long_. He’s locked in the dorm for three full days, his only sustenance ramyun pots he’d brought with him. They’re not filling enough.

What also isn’t filling enough anymore is his toy.

Even set to the widest girth setting, the knot isn’t as big as Kyungsoo’s, and it’s no longer as comfortable as it was the first time he used it. It’s not _uncomfortable_ , so Chanyeol does use it, after he’s exhausted his limit for using his fingers. But it’s not as pleasurable, and he comes, eyes tightly shut, with Kyungsoo’s name on his lips.

Deep in heat, sweat beads rolling off his body and soaking the bedding underneath him, mixing with his own come and lubrication, he misses Kyungsoo far too much for comfort. He doesn’t like Kyungsoo right now—but he _needs_ him.

It’s a rather disappointing realisation.

\---

Once his heat is over, Chanyeol is so exhausted from three days of strenuous activity that he stays in his dorm room and misses an extra day of classes. When he finally feels ready to see people again, he heads out to have lunch with the group. Well, he’s _theoretically_ better, but his body still feels sluggish, and there’s a strange chill that settles over him. He wonders if somehow his long heat has made him susceptible to catching something.

“You look awful,” Jinho says, reaching out to push Chanyeol’s hair away from his eyes.

“And you were away for so long,” Jongdae agrees. “Did you not find anyone to help you in the end?”

Chanyeol shrugs, body pulling him down in his chair. “It’s fine,” he says.

His friends look like they beg to differ, but they change the topic anyway, talking about the new university play that is going to happen at the end of the year.

Chanyeol tries his best to contribute to the conversation, but he can’t quite muster up the enthusiasm.

\---

Rather than getting better, Chanyeol’s sickness gets worse. In just a matter of days, he’s unable to eat without throwing up, and he’s got a fever that means he’s cold all the time. His body is so weak, his chest hurting when he breathes deeply, that it’s a struggle for him to make it to his lectures, so he has to leave thirty minutes earlier than usual just to make it. He’s grateful that his schedule is loose enough to accommodate such long walks; he doesn’t have lectures in different buildings one after another. If he did, he’d have to miss the second one, due to the fact there would be _absolutely no way_ of him making it.

He thinks that it’s probably just some kind of summer flu, so he puts on a hoodie, drinks lots of water, and deals with it. His lectures are too important to miss, even if sometimes he falls asleep in the middle of them. Jiwon always wakes him up before he starts snoring, so he doesn’t see the problem.

After this has been going on for over a week, his friends sit him down.

“Chanyeol, we’re worried about you,” Baekhyun begins.

“Have you even eaten at all?” Jinho asks. Like before, he pushes Chanyeol’s hair out of his face, but this time Chanyeol’s hair is soaked with sweat, and Jinho looks really worried. Chanyeol doesn’t think he needs to be. He’ll be better in no time.

“I think you need to go to the doctor,” Zitao says.

“I’m fine,” Chanyeol says. “It’s just summer flu.”

“I’m not sure that exists,” Baekhyun says.

“It could be pneumonia,” Jongdae agrees.

“Have you even eaten anything this week?” Jinho asks. “I haven’t seen you eat for days.”

“I’m fine,” Chanyeol repeats, and stands up. “Look, guys, I have to go to my lecture now, I’ll see you later.”

“Your lecture isn’t for another hour,” Jinho says.

“I need to be there in time,” Chanyeol says, exhaustion meaning that he doesn’t quite realise what he’s revealing. He can’t be fine if it takes him an hour to get to his lecture.

But he doesn’t wait for them to respond, and instead leaves slowly and carefully, making his way out of the cafeteria and along the hallway. As he moves, his steps get jerkier as his knees threaten to give way, and he clutches the wall like a man on his last legs, trying to stay upright.

It gets harder to breathe as he walks, the pain in his chest getting stronger. Chanyeol suddenly has the realisation that maybe something _is_ seriously wrong with him, and it’s just typical that it’s after he denied that there’s a problem to his friends.

“Chanyeol!” It’s Jinho’s voice, and Chanyeol turns slowly, hand pressed against the wall, to realise that he’s barely made it out of the cafeteria. “You forgot your—”

And before Chanyeol can hear what he’s forgotten, the blackness rushes up to meet him, and Chanyeol welcomes it.

\---

He wakes up in a sterile, white room, and it takes him a few moments, blinking at the white ceiling and listening to a steady beeping, to realise that he’s in a hospital room.

He sits up slowly, pushing himself up with the assistance of the handles on the bed. His body trembles in weakness, but doesn’t collapse. The room is mostly empty, just a chair beside the bed, but there’s a vase of pink, purple, white and yellow daisies on his bedside table and several cards. He reaches across to pick them up and realises that there’s a drip in his arm, keeping him alive.

The cards are from his friends, telling him that they hope he gets better. Jongdae’s ink is smudged, messing up his Hangul, and Chanyeol wonders if he was crying when he wrote it. He hopes not; he can’t bear to see any of his friends cry.

He sits there for a few minutes, just breathing, before the door opens.

“Chanyeol!” Jinho cries, rushing over to the bed. He falls into the chair and clasps Chanyeol’s hand in his own. With his free hand, he presses the buzzer beside the bed, and few moments later, a nurse appears in the door. When she notices Chanyeol’s awake, she disappears.

Jinho doesn’t let go of Chanyeol’s hand, lacing their fingers together. His hand is warm and Chanyeol’s doesn’t feel clammy with sweat, and he smiles at Jinho. He has always been comforting to Chanyeol. If neither of them were mated, he’d probably ask for a kiss.

Moments later, Chanyeol’s parents rush into the room, and over to Chanyeol’s side.

“Oh, baby,” his mother says, taking Chanyeol’s free hand and rubbing her thumb over the back of it. “We thought we’d lost you.”

Chanyeol turns to Jinho in surprise. There’s a sad smile on Jinho’s face.

“Your heart stopped,” he says. “I—I had to do CPR, which hurt me, and I’m pretty sure it hurt you too.” He glances down meaningfully. Chanyeol is in a hospital robe, and he realises that the doctor must have seen his full moon, and told Jinho.

His stomach grows queasy at the thought that they all must know now.

“You were out for four days,” Chanyeol’s mother whispers, momentarily distracting him, and Chanyeol’s eyes widen in shock. He hadn’t been expecting that at all.

“You didn’t tell us you’re mated,” Chanyeol’s father says. “Why?”

The doctor, a tall beta with a wide smile and sharp cheekbones, arrives just then, just in time to save Chanyeol from answering, the nurse following her. They say that Jinho has to leave, because he isn’t Chanyeol’s family, but Chanyeol holds firmly onto Jinho’s hand and says that he wants Jinho with him. They try to talk him out of it, but Chanyeol doesn’t give up, and eventually they give into him.

“Your friends have filled us in on your symptoms from their perspective. Could you explain them from yours?” the doctor asks.

Chanyeol explains as best he can the feelings of sickness, weakness, and how cold he is all the time. He explains how he’d felt just before he’d fainted; how he was clutching onto the wall, how his chest hurt, how he stopped being able to breathe. The more he talks, the weaker he feels, and he shuts his eyes partway through his speech.

“It’s happening again,” Jinho says, and Chanyeol can hear the panic in his voice.

“I’m—” Chanyeol begins, but Jinho cuts him off.

“You’re not fine, Chanyeol, there’s something very wrong with you.”

“You’re mated,” the doctor says. “Do you see your mate often?”

Chanyeol, keeping his eyes shut, shakes his head.

“Has he claimed you?” she asks.

Chanyeol shakes his head again. She sighs.

“What’s happening is your body is rebelling against the fact you are mated but that your mate hasn’t claimed you. This doesn’t happen very often because most people mate with people they are compatible with. But in your case, you are compatible but avoiding it.”

“I’m not,” Chanyeol says. “He’s the one who won’t see me.”

She carries on regardless. “The only way to stop the sickness is to be in a room with him, preferably with him touching you. Then he needs to claim you. Or both of you will stay sick.”

“He’ll be sick too?” Jinho asks.

“Yes,” the doctor replies. “Both of them will be feeling the separation. I don’t believe we’ve had anyone else with Chanyeol’s symptoms in our hospital, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t started. I would advise you to meet with him soon.”

At least Chanyeol’s not the only one suffering. He almost feels pleased that Kyungsoo will be in pain, too.

“He’s avoiding me,” Chanyeol whispers. His chest lurches, heart hurting, and tears well up in his eyes from the pain and the general misery of the situation. He tries to will them away, not having the energy to brush them away but also not wanting to cry in front of his parents. He can still feel his mother’s grip, tighter than when she’d first taken his hand. “I don’t want to see him anyway.”

“You need to see him,” the doctor says. “Usually the side-effects of not being claimed are that the bond breaks and you become unable to mate again and also unable to breed, but your aspect is strong and your mate bond is strong, and being away from him could kill you. You were lucky that your friend was there for you this time; next time you might be alone, and if your heart stopped again, that would be it for you. You and your mate need to be together.”

Chanyeol feels too weak to say anything. He just lies there, eyes shut, letting the sound of their voices wash over him. He can hear his father asking when he’ll be able to get out of hospital, and his mother asking Jinho if she knows who his mate is. He can hear Jinho say that he has a good idea, but doesn’t know for sure.

“He’s my best friend,” he says, rubbing Chanyeol’s palm with his thumb, “but I don’t know if I’m his. He doesn’t tell me everything. Maybe Jongdae will know?”

Jongdae is still one of Chanyeol’s favourite people, and probably one of the first people he’d rescue from a fire, or from bullies, but Chanyeol hasn’t told him any major secrets since before Zitao. Jinho knows more about him. It makes Chanyeol feel ashamed that he’s such a bad friend.

“If it’s who I think it is,” Jinho says, “I’m going to find him and I’m going to find out what—what on _earth_ he thinks he’s playing at.” He sounds angrier than Chanyeol’s ever known him to be. “I know Baekhyun and Jongdae will want to talk to him too. We’ll make sure he understands the situation, don’t worry.”

“You’re a good boy, Jinho,” Chanyeol’s mother says, and Chanyeol falls asleep with a small smile on his face.

\---

Even though he’s still weak, Chanyeol is let out of hospital the next day with strict instructions to see his mate that day.

“Don’t worry,” Jinho assures the doctor. “I’ll make sure it happens.”

Chanyeol’s parents drive them back to university and they’re eager to take him up to his room, but Chanyeol quietly promises them that Jinho will look after him. They seem uncertain, but they trust Jinho, they say, to make sure Chanyeol’s alright, and then they leave.

Once they’ve gone, Jinho says, “It’s Kyungsoo, isn’t it?”

Chanyeol can’t do any more than nod, and he can feel Jinho bristle from where he’s pressed against Chanyeol; arm around his waist, chest pressed against his side. Jinho’s so much shorter than him that he’s half-folded over in order to walk, but it’s comfortable all the same.

“That guy is a jerk,” Jinho says. “We were so wrong about him.”

Although Chanyeol’s been thinking it, it coming from someone else causes him to say, “But he’s my mate,” quietly.

“I know,” Jinho says, hugging Chanyeol to him. “He was a good friend to us. And you’re my family, so he is too. But that doesn’t mean that right now he’s not a jerk.”

Chanyeol nods, dropping his head down to rest on Jinho’s shoulders as they walk.

Chanyeol doesn’t know where they’re walking to, but it’s certainly not towards any of the dorms. But he lets Jinho steer them, trusting that he knows what he’s doing.

He takes them to the room used by the Drama Club, where the rest of their friends are already waiting for them.

The last time Chanyeol had been here was with Kyungsoo. He feels his chest grow tight again and has to sit down quickly.

He doesn’t pay much attention as the group talks together, only hearing Kyungsoo’s name mentioned every now and again. He thinks they might be conspiring to kidnap him, from the sounds of things, but doesn’t worry too much.

“Come on,” Jinho says to Chanyeol. “Let’s go and wait in here.”

Another pair of hands lifts Chanyeol, walking him across the room. Chanyeol squints his eyes open and can just about see them open a door and lead him through into the smaller wardrobe where they store all their costumes.

He lets them sit him down on a beanbag that had been left in there.

“Thanks Jongdae,” Jinho says, and Chanyeol realises that he had been the other person carrying him.

“No problem,” Jongdae replies. “Do you think he’ll be okay?”

“When Baekhyun and Zitao get back, yes,” Jinho says, his voice full of conviction. “I trust them completely to get the job done.”

“Me too,” Jongdae agrees.

Chanyeol doesn’t know what the job is, but he doesn’t really care.

\---

Chanyeol must have drifted off again, but he wakes up as the door is opened and a scent of alpha infiltrates his nostrils the way it hasn’t for a while.

It perks him up a little bit, causing him to open his eyes properly just in time to see Kyungsoo pushed into the room. The door bangs shut after him, and there’s the sound of a key turning in the door.

“Fix it,” Jongdae demands through the door.

“Just kiss and make up, already, it’s getting _ridiculous_ ,” Baekhyun adds.

Kyungsoo looks just as awful as Chanyeol imagines he probably looks. His hair is lank and his face sweaty. His eye-bags are deep and his cheeks gaunt and sallow.

It may be childish, but this is the boy who has ruined his life for the past month, so Chanyeol feels justified in folding his arms and refusing to look at him, who seems to be having the same idea, avoiding Chanyeol’s eyes.

At least now, Chanyeol stops feeling like death. He’s lost the constant urge to throw up, and he’s not cold any more, his body recognising that of his mate nearby. Even Kyungsoo looks like he isn’t going to keel over and die, some of the colour returning to his cheeks. Not that Chanyeol is looking, or anything.

It’s a while before either of them talk, and then Chanyeol whispers, “Why did you leave, that night?”

It sounds like a gun going off in that little silent room.

He thinks that Kyungsoo isn’t going to answer, as he just stands there for a few minutes in silence, but then Kyungsoo finally says, “You go through boys like they’re just toys. I knew that after we had that one weekend, you’d be done with me, so I thought—why let you make you make the decision? I’m an adult. I knew what’s going to happen. I made the decision to leave first, before you woke up.”

Chanyeol feels so angry at the dismissive way Kyungsoo speaks. He’s gone through _hell_ —almost _dying_ —, because Kyungsoo is a jerk. He hates it. “That’s not fair. You made the decision all on your own; you decided what I was going to think, what I was going to do, for me. You made the call, like the alpha you are—ignoring the fact that I make those decisions because they’re important for _me_. Did you not think that maybe I’m sleeping with lots of guys for a reason? I wanted a mate. I’m an _omega_. I don’t see the point of sleeping with boys who aren’t my mate.” It’s the most he’s said for weeks. He sucks in a deep breath, trying not to let his frustration show. He can feel a lump grow in his throat. “I wanted a mate, but instead I got _you_. You are the shittiest mate _ever_.”

Kyungsoo barely even winces.

Despite Chanyeol’s best efforts, angry tears roll down his cheeks, and he hides behind his arm, not wanting Kyungsoo to see this weakness, even though it’s all caused by him.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo says, though he doesn’t really _sound_ apologetic. “I didn’t know this was going to happen.”

“Because you didn’t give it a chance! You didn’t even check to see if we were mates, and then you spent the last month avoiding me,” Chanyeol points out. “You _must_ have known.”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo says, “but it wasn’t for a few days that I realised, and by that point I’d committed.”

“To what, to avoiding me?” Chanyeol shoots out.

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo repeats softly.

Chanyeol shakes his head. “I hate you,” he says, but there’s not enough force behind his words, not enough to make it sound like he means it. Instead, he just sounds petulant and pathetic.

“I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo repeats, and this time he _does_ sound like he means it. “You—you look like you’ve been having a hard time.”

“My heart stopped,” Chanyeol says, not intending for it to sound like some kind of attack; it’s just a fact. “Jinho had to give me CPR.”

Kyungsoo was holding onto one of the clothes rails, but when he hears that, his body jerks so hard that the rail falls over, clothes spreading everywhere. “How dare—” he begins, but then, as if he realises what he was going to say, he stops.

“What?” Chanyeol asks, half-laughing at the absurdity of this. “How dare he save my life?”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Kyungsoo says, frustration clear in his voice. “He just—he doesn’t have the right—” He breaks off again.

“What?” Chanyeol repeats. “My best friend doesn’t have the right to save my life when my heart stops because some jerk of an alpha has refused to claim me? He has more of a right than you.”

Kyungsoo jerks as if Chanyeol smacked him, standing still and staring at him in surprise. “You’re—” he begins, but Chanyeol interrupts him.

“You don’t seem to want me. You don’t get to say that when you don’t want me.”

“It’s not that!” Kyungsoo shouts, his arms flailing wide in a way that is remarkably animated for someone who looks like the living embodiment of a zombie. “It’s not that at all.”

“Well, tell me, because I feel like the only one who wants this to work.”

“No!” Kyungsoo says. “I…” He breaks off, raising his hands to press against his eyes. Chanyeol thinks he’s crying as well, and that it serves him right.

It takes Kyungsoo a few moments to compose himself enough to speak, quietly and carefully. “What do you want? From this, from me?”

It takes Chanyeol a few moments to think about how to put it into words. “I want…” He shakes his head and physically spits out the words. “I want you to _want_ me. I want you to stick around with me, and be with me. I want us to move into one of the mates’ dorms together and learn to love each other. I want to wear my wristband so that everyone knows I’m yours. I want you to _claim_ me. I’m _yours_ now.” His tears leak out again as he speaks, from frustration and pain.

Kyungsoo watches him toss out his heart and his feelings without so much as a nod of agreement. “Chanyeol,” he says slowly, his voice the calmest it’s been since he arrived. “Why do you think I asked to help you?”

Chanyeol shrugs, brushing away his tears with the sleeve of his hoodie. “I don’t know,” he says, trying to keep his voice calm as well. “You never showed any interest in anyone, much less me. I thought you just weren’t attracted to anyone, or it didn’t interest you to sleep with anyone. I never even saw anyone ask you.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “People asked me. I’d get asked a lot by omegas who thought I was also an omega. If I told them I was an alpha they’d be shocked.”

“People are shocked that I’m an omega,” Chanyeol breathes.

“Anyway, people asked me, but I always turned them down. You know why?” Kyungsoo says, his voice building in pitch and frustration the more he speaks. “Because I thought that maybe this would be the time you asked me to help you.”

Chanyeol swallows.

“I kept thinking that you’d ask me, and the months went by, and I realised you weren’t going to ask. And I wondered why. I’m short, I’m an alpha, I can dominate you. I figured I was your ideal type.”

This time Chanyeol feels his face heat up. He’s never thought about being dominated before, but that kind of _is_ what he likes, what he wants. He remembers Kyungsoo’s alpha pheromones rushing over him and just wanting to suck his cock. Kyungsoo’s got him spot-on.

“But you still never asked me. So I thought—if I wait, you’re going to find your mate, and I’m going to be stuck mooning over you the way Baekhyun says you used to moon over Jongdae.”

“I never—!” Chanyeol protests, hackles rising, because he really, honestly, was never in love with Jongdae. _Really._

Kyungsoo keeps going, ignoring Chanyeol’s protest. “So I asked you. Because at least that way if you said no, I’d know for sure, and if you said yes, at least I’d get the chance to fuck you, feel your wet heat around my cock. And it was just as good as I’d thought it would be—you were _so tight_ and so warm and it was all I could do to not kiss you. Especially when I already knew I was going to leave you.”

Chanyeol just stares at him, the blush heavy in his cheeks, even as his anger rises. “You—?” He trails off. He isn’t sure if he wants to smack Kyungsoo or to—

“Do you still want to be claimed? By me, by someone who hurt you out of selfishness? By someone who doesn’t deserve you?” Kyungsoo asks softly, reaching out to touch Chanyeol’s face gently, palm rubbing against the beard that he hasn’t shaved off for weeks now. Chanyeol leans into his hand, because he finally _understands_.

Chanyeol’s anger, the anger he’s been carrying around for days now, dissipates entirely along with his sickness. As his body begins to feel stronger with the touch of Kyungsoo’s hand, his desperation grows stronger as well, and his _desire_. “Yes,” he whispers. “ _Yes_.” Kyungsoo’s his mate. He’ll be happy to be claimed if just to stop feeling so ill all the time, but also it’s _Kyungsoo_. Kyungsoo’s a jerk, and this won’t stop that from being true, but Chanyeol still has growing feelings for him. And Kyungsoo clearly has feelings for him as well.

This was always meant to be.

“Okay,” Kyungsoo says, and then he surges forward, kissing Chanyeol hard.

Their teeth clash and their noses bump hard, but Chanyeol doesn’t mind, because he’s _finally_ kissing his mate. This is what he’s needed since that night. His thigh, where the mark is, burns, but it’s a pleasant burn. It’s a _knowing_ burn, and Chanyeol welcomes it.

Kyungsoo licks into his mouth, running his tongue over his teeth and wrapping around Chanyeol’s tongue as if claiming each part of him for himself, and Chanyeol lets him, lets him take control, lets him claim Chanyeol.

When they pull apart for air, Kyungsoo whispers, “You’re mine,” and Chanyeol finally feels like this is where he belongs.

 

 

** Five Years Later/Epilogue **

Chanyeol loves small children.

He often babysits Amber and Henry’s two young children, and Jinho and Ten’s new baby. Joonmyun and Kyuhyun have recently adopted a young child, Baekhyun and Yixing are talking about adopting, and he remembers Hyunwoo saying that he and Seungho are considering having children. Even Yura and her mate, a cute omega boy who is almost as tall as Chanyeol, are expecting their first child. The only couple who seem perfectly happy without children are Jongdae and Zitao, and he has no idea about Kyung. Chanyeol thinks that that is fair enough.

He loves children, but he doesn’t realise how that looks to other people until he and Kyungsoo are at his parents’ house for dinner with the whole family, and his mother asks, immediately after grilling Yura’s mate on his pregnancy, “Chanyeol, when are you and Kyungsoo going to give us grandchildren?”

Chanyeol chokes on his tea, and starts coughing. Kyungsoo pats him on the back gently, his hand warm through Chanyeol’s t-shirt. Even now, years after they first mated, Kyungsoo has the same effect on him. Chanyeol feels like a confused teenager with his first crush.

“We haven’t really talked about it,” Kyungsoo admits, rubbing Chanyeol’s back as his coughs begin to subside.

“Oh, but you’d be such good parents,” Chanyeol’s mother continues.

Yura nods her head. “Chanyeol would be an amazing mother,” she says cheerfully.

Chanyeol feels his cheeks warm up. He’s cross with her, and yet somehow also pleased at the praise. He isn’t a woman, and therefore “mother” doesn’t apply to him, regardless of whether he’s the one giving birth or not; male omegas are usually considered fathers just as female alphas are still often considered mothers, unless the pair deliberately choose to take different names (Amber and Henry’s children certainly refer to Henry as “Umma”). But somehow the idea of having a child, a little baby who looks like him and Kyungsoo combined, calling him _Umma_ makes his knees weak. He’s grateful that he’s seated, or he thinks he would have fallen.

Kyungsoo looks over at him and smirks, as if he can read Chanyeol’s thoughts. Chanyeol blushes harder.

\---

Later that night, when they’re curled together in bed, Kyungsoo wrapped around Chanyeol’s larger form, Kyungsoo says, “Do you want children?”

“Do _you_?” Chanyeol counters.

“I love you,” Kyungsoo says. It makes Chanyeol’s heart sing every time he hears it. “If you want children, then I want children.”

Chanyeol nods his head. “I do,” he says.

“Okay,” Kyungsoo says. “You’ll be a great mother.” He pats Chanyeol’s stomach as he says it. Chanyeol nods his head in agreement.

“It’ll be nice to have children about,” Kyungsoo says, leaning into Chanyeol’s shoulders so that his lips brush his bare skin. “It’s quiet around here.”

“Next time,” Chanyeol replies, leaning further back into Kyungsoo’s hold and giving him better access to his shoulders. “Shall we try next time my heat comes?”

“Yes,” Kyungsoo says, “let’s do that.”

\---

And try they do. Chanyeol’s heat is only down to a day since he’s been mated, which doesn’t give them a lot of attempts. Kyungsoo is still able to knot Chanyeol a few times each heat, filling him up nicely, hopefully in a way which will get him pregnant; the way his body has always been made to be. He’s known since he was seventeen that one day he was going to carry children, and lots of them.

The most reliable way of knowing whether an omega is pregnant is to wait until their next heat. If it doesn’t come, then it proves that they are.

But it’s a long wait. Chanyeol gets impatient, desperately needing to know whether he’s creating life. One day, a long time ago, he’d never have been able to see himself like this; actively trying to get pregnant, actively trying to bring new life into the world. He’d hated himself back then. But now he’s comfortable and happy. He has a loving mate, and loving friends, and a loving family, and hopefully now he’s going to have one last thing; loving children.

When the weekend of his heat comes and goes without anything affecting Chanyeol, he knows that he’s succeeded, and he curls up with his head on Kyungsoo’s lap, basking in the realisation that he’s going to be a parent.

Yura teases him about it when he gives everyone the news, Kyungsoo’s hand possessively resting on the small of his back, but there’s no bite behind her words, and Chanyeol’s too happy to be offended anyway.

“That’s great!” Cousin Amber laughs. “Now you can learn how boys give birth! That’s always a fun experience.” Jinho shudders, yet also nods.

(Chanyeol’s also a little terrified.)


End file.
